Within These Walls
by SeattleGirl359
Summary: AU prison story starting in late season 3. Shows the evolution of Beth and Daryl's relationship if things had gone differently. Bethyl
1. Chapter 1

_**This story is set in the prison starting in late season 3. **__** Shows the evolution of Beth and Daryl's relationship if things had gone differently. **_I got stuck on the idea and then more chapters kept coming to mind so I decided to roll with it so hopefully you all like a prison AU story! I don't have a specific point in season 3 that I'm starting from and there are going to be noticeable differences like the Governor isn't **exactly**_** a psychopath. It gives me way more freedom to write what I want to that way.  
**_

Carol had told Daryl that Axel would not leave Beth alone, even after she told him to keep away from Beth. She had walked outside to where Daryl had finished talking to Rick with this pissed at the world kind of look on her face. Honestly, it looked like she was going to strangle the next person to look at her. In all actuality, he didn't want to know what was making her so angry, but Carol was determined to let him know.

"You should do something about it," she carefully hinted. "He doesn't take my threats seriously. Tell him to step off. He'll listen to you."

Daryl looked back at the prison and then to her with squinted eyes due to the burning sun beating down. "And why's that?"

"Because he'll take you seriously! I could probably tell the guy I'd suffocate him in his sleep and he would still be thinkin' about putting his grubby hands on Beth!"

Daryl snorted. Carol _would_ say something like that and do it if it meant protecting Beth. Hell, he'd do the same. He didn't really know the girl that well but that didn't mean he wasn't protective of her.

Carol folded her arms over her chest and sighed out of frustration. "She's only seventeen, almost eighteen but that's not the point. And Axel…well, he's been locked up a long time. Told me all about it. Sayin' how Maggie has Glenn and the only other option was Beth. Thought I was a lesbian and started with me when I told him he was wrong and set him straight—no pun intended." Carol took a minute and shook her head. "But I guess Beth is too nice to send him packin'. I'm not even sure he'd stop if she did. She's a beautiful girl. I'm just a bit worried. Don't trust the guy. He ain't gonna quit unless _someone_ does something."

The more Carol told him about Axel's persistence, the more it became apparent that this guy couldn't take the fucking hint that Beth was off limits.

He decided that he needed to make it known to Axel that he would twist his arms off if he ever tried anything with Beth. He's not entirely sure if Axel would actually try anything, but just like Carol, he didn't trust him. Axel hadn't gained anyone's trust around here, not yet. It really isn't his job to be doing this considering Beth was not his blood or his good friend or his…girlfriend. But he felt the need to take care of it since Beth was too sweet and wouldn't tell the guy to fuck off.

It just so happens that when he rounds the corner of the prison that there he was right next to Beth who was holding Judith on her lap. Unbelievable. She looked so uncomfortable sitting there to the point where he felt the tension emitting from her all the way from across the room. From where he stood he could see that she was leaning away from him, staring at the ground in a daze.

He was talking to her, babbling on and on about who knows what. She was smiling but only out of politeness. He saw how her eyes glanced around the room, looking for some sort of escape route.

It rubbed him the wrong way.

He needed to tell Axel to stop perving on young women who are obviously taking care of infants and don't want his affections to begin with. Was he oblivious to the fact that she was unresponsive to him? Even Daryl could spot that in an instant.

"Hey!" His booming voice echoed throughout the walls as he approached the two of them who were sitting at one of the tables they used to eat at for dinner. Axel looked up like a thief caught red-handed, his eyes bulging out of his head. Beth on the other hand, glanced up wide-eyed with a relieved expression taking over her face since she was no longer alone with Axel. She smiled at Daryl, a real smile.

Daryl walked over to the table they where sitting at. The thing is that he hadn't thought about what to say on the way over here and his brain searched for a way to remove Beth from the room so he could get Axel alone.

Beth's eyes didn't move from his. She waited for him to say something, rocking Judith back and forth in her arms. Maybe she was silently pleading with him to get her out of there. "Uh, Carol needs some help outside, if you don't mind, Beth."

"I'll go too," Axel interjected, getting up from his spot at the table.

"You'll stay," Daryl sternly told him as he clutched onto the strap of his crossbow that was strung diagonally around his chest, the crossbow weighing down on his back. "Carol only needs Beth."

Beth gave him a look as if to say 'thank you, you just saved my life' before she got up with Judith and headed outside. She briefly looked at him again as she passed him, but his eyes were trained on Axel. Beth would find that Carol didn't actually need any help and that Daryl made it up. Part of him hoped that Carol would make something else up as well so it didn't look like Daryl was going around playing superhero and shutting up the bad guys.

Daryl turned his full attention to Axel, who had been watching as Beth left the room. Could the dude be anymore creepy? He waited until he heard the hallway door open and close shut, signifying that Beth was headed outside and was no longer in hearing distance. "What do you think you're doin'?" He started off, his voice laced with a hint of anger.

"What?"

Daryl glared at him. "What? Are ya serious? I'm talkin' 'bout Beth. Carol told me what's goin' on and I don't like it. Can't be doin' that shit. Not here. It's not okay with me."

Axel's face fell, his eyes getting wide. He put his hands up in front of him as if he was caught by the police, which he's actually had some practice at doing, considering. "Oh. _Oh. _Sorry man, I didn't realize she was yours. Carol never told me that part. Didn't mean nothing by it, honestly. "

His? Where in the fucking hell did he get that idea from?

For some unknown reason, he doesn't deny it.

"Talk to her again, even look in her direction," he growled, getting right to the point of the conversation, looking Axel dead in the eyes. His hands balled into fists. "I'll put an arrow right through you myself."

He walked away, not waiting for any type of response from Axel. The look of terror in his eyes was enough to satisfy Daryl.

On his way to the door that would take him outside, Daryl began to think that maybe, _maybe_ he took that a little too far. After all, he did just threaten to kill a guy because he was being too flirty with Beth. _She's still seventeen_, he reminded himself, making himself feel better about being so blunt with Axel. She still needed protecting. Who knew what that guy was capable of if left alone with her too much and too long. Daryl didn't even know why he was in jail to begin with, and he didn't care to know either.

Back outside, he saw Carol holding Judith while talking to Beth so he doesn't disturb them. He goes over to do fence duty with Rick and Glenn instead.

_I didn't realize she was yours._

The words played over and over in his head. He can't seem to shake them, even as he impales walkers. And what the fuck was wrong with him? Why didn't he tell Axel that Beth wasn't his?

—

A week went by with Daryl keeping a close eye out for if he needed to make good on his threat. In all actuality, he probably wouldn't shot Axel. He would just have to take him out back and teach him that he was dead serious about him keeping away from Beth. Then he would need to consult Rick on what to do about him. The good news was that he had barely seen Axel in the past week. He was avoiding Daryl, which was a good thing. He was also avoiding Beth like the plague. Even better.

Mission accomplished. He had scared him enough for Axel to come to his senses and go bother someone else.

Daryl was in his cell on the bottom bunk examining one of his arrows when he heard light footsteps coming in his direction. He noticed the mess of blonde hair in a ponytail that came from around the corner before anything else. He already knew who was before he looked up and saw Beth standing there, leaning against the cell bars with a small, shy smile on her face.

"Hey," she greeted him in her soft voice.

It was nighttime, which meant that the moonlight was showing through the windows that were on the walls, illuminating Beth's blonde hair and pale skin from where she stood at the edge of the cell.

Daryl paused for a moment. "Hey."

"I wanted to say thank you. Carol just told me about how you told Axel to stay away and he hasn't come near me since. I was wonderin' why all of sudden he stopped, you know, flirting with me." She sounded uncomfortable as she said those last three words. "It's a relief that I don't have to worry about it anymore."

Daryl shrugged, brushing it off. He is under the impression now that Axel stayed away because he believed that there was something going on between Daryl and Beth. That was something he would never tell her or anyone, as long as Axel kept his trap shut. That was a situation he would like to avoid. "Don't need to thank me. Axel needed a reality check."

"But I do need to," she insisted, grabbing onto one of the bars and leaning her side against it. She offered him a sweet smile. "If it weren't for you he'd be following me around still."

He is about to rebuff her gratitude when he leaned back against the wall too fast and knocked his head against it. It jolted him, feeling the sting of the impact on the back of his head. He gritted his teeth together, keeping his mouth shut, and forced himself not to reach up and rub his head, fearing that it would make him seem like a wimp. He was already making himself look like a clumsy idiot for banging his head into the cell wall.

_Smart move._

The embarrassment clouded over his mind. He needed to say something but no words were forming. Beth stood there, watching him with curiosity, probably wondering why he sat there with this weird ass expression on his face because the back of his head is fucked up out of his own stupidity.

Damn. Why was he like this? He was good at hunting with his skill with a crossbow, good at killing walkers and any other threat to the living, getting supplies the group needed, and yet he was the most awkward human being to walk the planet as soon as a woman was in the picture. Funny how things work out that way.

He is finally able to clear his throat, pushing the embarrassment away. He spoke up before Beth had the chance to ask him if he was okay. "He bothers you again, let me know. I'll take care of it."

Beth nodded her head. "Okay, I will."

Daryl shifted around, not sure what to do with himself when the silence between them persisted and Beth made no attempt to leave. She looked as if she wanted to say something else but was holding back. He dropped his gaze on her and settled for absently messing with his arrow that was still in his hand.

Daryl realized that this is the first time since they met that they have ever been alone together for more than a few seconds. He didn't know much about her other than the basics and she certainly didn't know much about him. But he wouldn't mind getting to know her. It was just difficult to get to know someone when dead people were walking around trying to eat everything living in their path. That and the fact that conversation wasn't his strong suit.

"Well," Beth said as she corrected her stance and moved so that she was headed away from his cell, giving him once last glance. "Thanks again. I owe you."

Daryl watched as she left, her footsteps falling back down the hallway. He felt weird about this all of a sudden. He finally saw why Axel had been bothering her. Sure, she was young, but damn was she pretty. He guessed he understood where Axel was coming from initially. If he had been locked up for a long time and he saw Beth for the first time…his thoughts wouldn't exactly be all that innocent. But he sure as hell would never be bugging her like Axel had been doing until he put a stop to that. And that didn't mean what Axel was doing was right. Beth clearly did not want his attention, and he had kept going at it. If she had responded to his attention then maybe things would be different. That thought alone made him cringe.

His thoughts traveled back to Beth. There was a certain allure to her that he couldn't quite place his finger on. The image of her leaning against the cell bars entered back into his head. Was it the mixture of her blonde hair, blue eyes, pale skin and petite body?

Her body.

Shit. He couldn't be thinking about that. He caught himself in the thought, pushing it out of his mind. That made him almost as bad as Axel. And Daryl Dixon was not a hypocrite. But at least he wasn't acting on his thoughts like Axel was, flirting with Beth and making her extremely uncomfortable.

Daryl leaned back onto his pillow and stared at the top of the bunk above him, setting the arrow down next to the crossbow that was leaned up against the bed. He could really use a cigarette right about now but was unwilling to get up and go outside. It was going to be another long day tomorrow of killing walkers that were gathering along the fences so he needed his rest more than he needed a cigarette. Besides, if he got up he ran the risk of running into Beth again. Getting her out of his mind was hard enough without her presence.

_**A/N: What do you think? I'll be updating probably on the weekend since I have my Statistics final test at the end of the week and my final project for cognitive psychology due Friday. College summer classes are a nightmare sometimes. **_


	2. Chapter 2

The next time Daryl spoke to Beth it was a few weeks later. He was outside working on the engine of one of the trucks, getting frustrated that he could not figure out what the problem was. The heat was outrageous that day, making him one of the only people outside except for Michonne who was up in the guard tower keeping watch now that Rick trusted her. No one wanted to be out here in this kind of extreme heat. Daryl was the only one brave enough to be outside for more than fifteen minutes, or so he thought.

"Hi, Daryl."

He extracted his head out from under the hood of the truck, almost hitting his head on the top, which would have been an unfortunate coincidence considering the last time this girl was around him he hit his head on the wall. He didn't need to look like more of a fool.

Beth stood there with her usual soft smile and kind eyes looking back at him. She had on the minimum amount of clothes, which was understandable for the kind of summer day that it was. She wore blue jean shorts and a black tank top that was tight on her skin, a ponytail with a braid high on the top of her head.

Daryl looked around to see if there was a reason as to why she was outside, coming up with nothing. "Hey, there."

"What are you doin'?"

He motioned back to the engine. "Just tryin' to figure out why all of a sudden it won't start. You sister's boyfriend was the last person to drive it so…"

Beth laughed and peered over at the engine. "What? No joke about how he just so happens to be Asian and just so happened to break the car?"

Daryl shrugged. "Already busted his balls for that earlier."

"Wait, didn't he bring back the other car last week and it was making a rattling sound? Maybe we should ban him from drivin' for a while. He puts some sort of a curse on all the cars."

Daryl laughed, turning his attention back to the engine. There is a moment where Beth is looking at him, probably waiting for him to continue talking.

_Say something._

"Um," he started. "Whatcha doin' out here anyways? Surely you got better places to be than out here talkin' to me."

Beth looked around the courtyard, putting her hand up to block the sun that was now beaming down onto her. "I have the day off, apparently. Carol took Judith for the day and now I've got nothin' to do. And no one needs help with anything inside so here I am, getting my daily dose of vitamin D."

Daryl nodded while he wiped his hands on a rag to get off some oil from the engine. All of a sudden he was feeling nervous knowing that she had nowhere else to go.

"Off babysittin' duty, huh?"

"Yeah, I guess so. At least for today. Mind if I stay out here," she asked, looking back at him.

_Yes. Say yes and she will go away._

"Not at all."

_Dumbass. _

Truthfully, he wanted her to stay but was kind of afraid for her to do that. Something about this girl made him feel really anxious when she was around. He couldn't place what it was, which aggravated him to no end.

Beth moved over to the prison wall and leaned up against it, partially in the shade. She let her body slide down the wall until she was sitting on the ground. "You good with cars?"

"Not terrible. I know a thing or two. Definitely no mechanic, though."

"I wouldn't even know how to change a tire. You know I don't even have my driver's license," she told him. "Pretty sad, right? I mean, Maggie didn't get hers until she was twenty because living on the farm, we didn't really need it. I think she let me drive maybe once or twice when my parents weren't around. But, oh well. Guess that'll never happen."

"Not like you really need to know how to drive now anyways," Daryl pointed out.

"Still would have been nice to know."

"Why? You plannin' on making an escape from the prison? Drivin' off into the sunset and never lookin' back?"

Beth giggled, causing the slightest bit of satisfaction to bubble up in him for making her laugh at the dumb joke.

"And where would I escape to? I'd have nowhere to go and no way to survive. I'm not like you, remember? I can't track down my dinner if I needed to."

"All you would need is a survival 101 class and and some lessons in huntin'. You'd be fine."

Beth picked a tall weed out from the ground and started to twirl it around in her finger. "I'd take it only if you're teachin'. You are the best, after all."

"Maybe I'll give you a lesson someday."

Beth perked up. "Really?"

Well, it's not like that would be the worst thing in the world. It would give him something to do in the off hours, if he felt like it. "Yeah, really."

She smiled at him and said, "I'd like that."

Daryl went back to working as Beth stayed in her spot on the ground, picking at the weeds. He half expected her to get up and leave once they were done talking but she never did. Instead, she watched him work, and _no _that was not the reason why he was getting a nervous feeling, it couldn't be. She asked the occasional question or two about him, like where he grew up. He gave her vague answers and didn't elaborate too much. Beth wasn't pushy with it and she wasn't pressing for answers. After a few, she must have gotten the hint that it was a sore subject.

If it were anyone else out here asking about his past, Daryl would be more than annoyed by now. He probably would be swearing at them to mind their own damn business and to stop poking around in his. Since it was Beth, however, he didn't mind it too much. He didn't get defensive about any of it. He wasn't getting the feeling like she was a judgmental person so he was willing to offer up some bits and pieces of his life, just not the ones that haunted him.

He finished up with the engine, finally figuring out what was wrong. Funny thing was that he was so frustrated before that he was missing the problem that was right in front of his face. He tried not to acknowledge the fact that Beth was the one who came out and made him calmer, which allowed him to think more clearly. But he knew that is the real truth.

He glanced over to Beth when he was done. She had a collection of weeds in a pile by her side and was staring off into the distance. When he turned to see what was captivating her attention, he saw that a number of walkers had found their way to the fences. They pressed their fingers and faces into the metal of the fence. It looked like they were trying to chew their way through it, even though that would not be possible.

"They don't ever take a break, do they?"

Daryl shut the trunk hood and looked back over to Beth. "Would be nice if they did." He motioned over to the fence with his head. "I should probably take care of that."

"I can help, if you want," Beth quickly offered.

Daryl eyed her with suspicion. Three weeks ago they had barely spoken to each other and now she was sitting outside in the hundred and ten degree weather talking to him for no real reason other than she didn't have Judith, and now offered to help him kill walkers. Something was definitely off here. "Listen, you don't gotta do this."

"Do what?"

"_This._" He motioned to the both of them. "What you said before, you don't owe me, not for tellin' Axel off. Don't be feelin' like you gotta repay me or something with your time."

Beth blinked twice, visibly confused by Daryl's irritable tone and snappy attitude. "I'm here because I want to be, Daryl, not because I feel I'm repaying a debt."

_Oh. _

Now he looked like a jackass for snapping at her for no reason. How typical of him to do something like this. Here Beth was just being nothing but nice and he lost his mind over it.

"Am I botherin' you," she questioned, hurt appearing on her face, though he is sure she was trying to hold it back. "I can go. You can tell me if you don't want me here."

"It's not that," he assured her. Daryl ran his fingers through his hair. He sure knew how to make a good thing go sour. "You're not botherin' me. Forget what I said. I think the heat is gettin' to me. I'm being an idiot."

"Are you sure that's because of the heat?"

When Daryl looked over at her, she was grinning at him. He snorted and looked down at the ground before titling his head back up at Beth to peer over at her. This girl had some guts to be saying something like that. He liked that about her. She wasn't one of those people who walked around on eggshells around him.

Beth got up off the ground and brushed any dirt off of her shorts. She took a few steps away from him and he thought that maybe he had scared her off with his snappy attitude when she called back to him. "So, are we going to go kill some walkers or what? Doesn't look like anyone else will be comin' out anytime soon. And let's face it, you could use the help. There's gotta be at least two dozen of them over there."

Daryl considered his options. Either tell her they should go inside with the rest of the people and he would handle the walkers later, or he could accept the help and they could take care of the problem themselves. His brain went back and forth on the issue until he realized that he does indeed like Beth's company, so what harm could it possibly do? "Alright, let's go." He walked over to the side of the building to grab two of the two foot long poles they used to kill the walkers with that gathered by the fences. He had just sharpened them yesterday so it would be good for them to use.

He held it out for Beth to take, even though he is sure she has never been down to the fences impaling walkers with one of them before. "You ever use one of these?"

Beth lifted her eyebrows after she eyed the weapon, putting her hands on her hips. "Does it look like I have used one yet?"

"Well, you're gonna learn today, girl."

"Oh, wow, I can't wait!" She feigned enthusiasm, which was amusing to Daryl.

They walked down to the fences in silence. The walkers were biting at the gate, trying to get to them once they were stationed a few feet from them. This made it easy. The walker's faces were plastered against the fence, making it fairly simple to plunge a pointed object into their head.

"Ugly son of bitch," he remarked at this one crazy ass looking walker who was extremely decayed, half a face missing, and had one arm remaining. Looked like he'd been through a rough time. "Take that one out first."

Beth grabbed the sharpened pole from Daryl. "Hold it like this?"

"Yeah, that's good. Now just pull your arms back and stab it. Make sure you're watchin' where you want the sharp part to go or you'll hit the fence and that won't be pretty," he instructed. "Put a lot of force into it. Don't hold back or it'll do nothin' to them. You won't get through to the brain, you'll just give it a nasty hole in its head."

He watched her carefully, making sure she was not in any immediate danger. Yes, there was a fence there but these walkers were pretty fucking determined to get to them. They were sticking their hands and fingers through the fence, their nails long and blackened. One scratch and she was done for. When her left elbow got too close to the fence while aiming her shot, Daryl reached out and grabbed her arm to pull he back. "Not so close," he hissed.

The last thing he needed was Maggie screaming at him for letting Beth get too close and a walker almost getting to her. Hell, she'd probably be upset that he was down her showing her how to kill the dead bastards in the first place. A week ago he had walked past Maggie and Glenn in their cell, overhearing Maggie tell Glenn that she would rather Beth take care of Judith than be out at the fences or doing the other jobs that involved a gory mess.

What, was she fucking serious?

Daryl disagreed completely. She needed to know how to do this sort of thing. Beth couldn't be playing nanny forever.

In the middle of a thought, he realized that his hand was still grabbing onto her arm where he had yanked her back from the fence. He dropped it to his side, balling his hand into a fist before letting it relax.

Beth threw her weight into propelling the pole at the walker. To his surprise, she got it the head the first time, killing the walker instantly. Daryl moved over to the side more before she yanked the pole back out of its head so he and the walker didn't end up meeting the same fate.

Some blood squirted back at Beth as the pole was removed from the walker, who had already dropped to the ground. She looked down at her ruined shirt and shorts, blood staining them and her nice pale skin. She glanced over at him and said, "I'm glad I didn't love this outfit. I've got blood all over me and I'm just gettin' started"

Daryl shrugged his shoulders. "That's what a shower and soap is for. You can go in if it bothers you. I can finish up."

Beth cocked her head to the side. "Are you tryin' to get rid of me? A little blood won't scare me away." She lined up her next shot and took out another walker. "Even if it _is _gross."

Part of him was under the belief that she would think it was too messy and go back inside, but damn was he proven wrong. There was more to this girl that he initially thought.

**_A/N: Thank you for the reviews, favorites, and follows. You all are the best!_**


	3. Chapter 3

Losing track of time was all too easy. Not that Daryl really paid much attention to the days of the week when he was drifting with Merle, or even before that. It didn't matter too much to him. Now the problem was that no one could exactly be sure of what _month_ it was, especially in summer. It was hot out no matter which summer month it was and there was no way to tell them apart.

Daryl was out on a run with Michonne when she asked him. Was it July? Maybe it was August. Or possibly early September. Who the hell knew. No one kept track of that kind of stuff. Daryl didn't give it much thought. All he cared about was getting away from this run down cabin in the woods that reminded him of where he grew up. His home? No. It was never a home to him. He never had something like that, probably never would.

He indicated several times he didn't want to be there after finding the moonshine. She didn't want to leave just yet, and that bugged him. Like _hello_. What the fuck did she think this place had to offer? What did she even see in a shit hole like this? Daryl wasn't going into that cabin. No fucking way. Looking in through the door was enough for him. And he was not about to go wait in the car while Michonne looked around. He would leave Michonne here if he had to. All he wanted was to get away, run away like he always did, never able to face his demons. Too afraid to face them.

There was nothing there for them. Besides, they had already managed to hit a few more houses in the day so they had a bunch of necessary items they were bringing back to the prison.

Daryl trudged back through the woods more than agitated, hoping Michonne would get the hint that he was leaving and she better get over here.

Michonne and Daryl get back on the road, and since she was the one to drive in the morning, Daryl was now driving back to the prison. They had been out all day. And honestly, that made him kind of nervous. He didn't like being away for too long, thinking that anything could happen in his absence. He was anxious to get back to the prison, and he never thought that would be something that would enter his brain.

Happy to get back to a _prison_? What a joke.

Aside from that, yes, he drove a little bit faster than he should have, acquiring a side glare from Michonne who really wanted to sleep but was too freaked out by his fast driving to give that a shot. People these days apparently didn't have the best of luck with cars, which is ironic given the circumstances that the world was in.

But the good thing about Michonne is that she doesn't feel the need to fill in the silence on their trip. She was perfectly content with staring out the window and remaining quiet for most of the way out and back. He liked that. There was no need to make awkward small talk, something that Daryl hated the most.

When they get back to the gates of the prison it's nearly sunset, but Daryl is relieved that everything looked normal, you know, with all the dead people walking around and survivors living inside the safety of the prison. The usual.

Rick gets the gate open for them and Daryl drove though before any walkers could get too close. He parked close to the prison so they could unload all of the food and other things they got on the run. Daryl got out of the car and noticed that Beth was in the courtyard over in grass with Judith on her lap and Carl was sitting down across from her. She turned around and noticed Daryl watching her. She smiled at him, handing Judith over to Carl. When she started walking over, Daryl quickly turned around and popped open the trunk of the car. Michonne had found some baby clothes that would be able to fit Judith so he grabbed them out to give to her just as Beth walked up behind him.

"Think these will be good?" he asked.

Beth took the clothes from him and held them up. "Yes! They will be perfect. They'll fit her just fine."

Daryl couldn't help but stare at her bight smile. He was glad she was happy.

Rick walked up behind them and motioned for Daryl to hand him a box, which he did while saying he would go get some help from inside to unload.

Once he was gone, Beth spoke up. "You were gone a while," she commented, examining what all was in the trunk and in the backseat of the car.

"Michonne made us get lost," he told her.

Michonne came around the side of the car and grabbed up a pile of items that were in a box. "We weren't lost. I just wasn't sure where we were for about an hour. We made it back, didn't we?"

She didn't wait for an answer, settling for walking back into the prison. Daryl handed Beth a box full of shelf stable items before others came filing out of the prison. Everyone helped unload and Beth got lost in the crowd of people. He assumed she went to the kitchen to help stock the shelves. He told himself that's not the reason he decided to pick up another one of the boxes of food that was left after most of the others had grabbed boxes and took the items to their rightful spot in the prison.

Daryl found his way into the kitchen and saw that Beth was there alone and taking cans out of the six boxes that were scattered around her on the floor. "Everyone leave it up to you to put this away?"

Beth looked up, a bit startled by him. She bended over to pick up a few more cans to put on the shelf and in the process he realized that she was organizing them on the shelf in a specific order. "I offered to. Carl begged me to let him have some time with Judith so I figured I'd make myself useful and do something else."

Beth leaned up against the shelving so that she faced him. "You got a lot of stuff this time," she remarked, holding up a can of fruit. "And it's not even expired yet."

"You can thank Michonne for that. Her gettin' us lost made us stumble across a few houses that were untouched." And by untouched he meant that the residents had committed suicide inside the house making a real nice mess, but he was not about to tell Beth that. "Lucky we found our way back."

"You, _lost_? I doubt that has ever happened before?"

"It did," he admitted. "When I was a kid. Got lost in the woods for nine days."

Oh shit. Had he just told her that? The words had rolled out of his mouth like that was a completely normal thing that happened during childhood.

Beth's face fell. He could see the concern on her face, as well as the shock. "Oh my. Nine? That must have been so scary."

Daryl shrugged one of his shoulders. "Wasn't that bad. Found my way back eventually. Walked in the house and, damn, I don't think I had ever been so happy in my life to see a loaf of bread. Berries weren't exactly the greatest meal all the time when I was out in the woods."

"I bet everyone was glad to know you were safe when you got back."

Daryl stared blankly into the box of cans. He remembered that day as if it were yesterday. "Merle was in juvie at the time, my mom was already dead, and my dad…he didn't realize I was gone. Too drunk all the time. Can't be happy 'bout somethin' returning that you didn't know was missing in the first place."

He didn't want to look at her after that. Revealing that to her would make her think he was crazy and serious messed up. Damaged, as Merle liked to tell him, reminding him whenever he had a chance to. His brother was an asshole. He was right though. He _was _damaged. But he didn't exactly love to be reminded of it by his own brother. He wouldn't admit it but Merle and him being separated for so long did Daryl some good. He got out from Merle's shadow. He got away from all that bullshit.

"I feel like I should say I'm sorry...but I have the feeling you don't want me to," she said softly.

"Nothin' to be sorry for."

Daryl felt so vulnerable right this minute. He hated that feeling. It felt like the weight of the world was pressed down onto him. He spilled his guts to this girl out of the blue like one of those lonely people checking out at the grocery store who won't stop talking to the cashier. He had been behind those people plenty of times, annoyed that they were telling some random stranger about their life story and all he wanted to do was pay for his shit and get out of there. Now he _was _that person, standing there disclosing part of his past to Beth unexpectedly while stocking canned food.

Beth held out her hand so he could pass her the can of carrots that he had picked out of the box. "So is that why you got so good a hunting? The being lost part trigger that?"

He never thought about it that way before. Maybe Beth was right, and the fear of getting lost again as a child made him determined to learn everything there was to know about surviving in the wilderness, and surviving in general. "I guess so," he concluded, the thought sticking with him.

They continued to stock the shelves until everything was up on them. Part of Daryl felt strange because he had revealed a sliver of information about his past, and the not so good part, though there was not really a good part to share anyways. He never did something like. Never felt secure enough in the moment to divulge such kind of information. What was it about Beth that made him feel like he could do that?

His thought process was interrupted when Carol came around the corner and greeted Beth, and the unexpectedly said hello to him. The look in her eye bordered a mixture of concern and confusion. Clearly, she was not anticipating Daryl to be in the pantry stocking shelves with Beth. It was something way out of the norm. She looked at him as if to say, 'what the fuck are you doing in here?' It made him feel like he had been caught doing something bad.

"Ready to get dinner started?" Carol asked Beth, examining the shelves that were lined with new ingredients. She picked up one of the packages of raw pasta and then took the can of beans that was sitting next to it. "We could do chili or pasta tonight? What do you think?"

Beth shifted her position so she looked back at Daryl. "What would you rather have? You're the one who has been out all day and brought it back. You decide."

"Chili's fine," he muttered, not meeting either of their gaze. All of a sudden the space in the pantry seemed to be suffocating him and he needed to get out before Carol said some kind of teasing joke about him spending time with Beth. "I'm, uh, gonna go check the perimeter."

"Thanks for the help," Beth added before he could turn and leave the pantry to let them start cooking dinner.

"Sure."

"See you later, pookie," Carol cooed. She knew he hated that stupid nickname. Daryl could hear a giggle from Beth as he walked away. "Come back soon! We could use some _manliness_ in this kitchen."

Oh, just kill him now.

—

Daryl went to Beth's cell later that night. He handed over a notebook to Beth after she acknowledged him being there. She hadn't asked him for it but he had noticed she was running low on space in the old notebook to write down her thoughts or whatever she wrote about. Her face lit up when he held it out the dark blue notebook with a strap around it to keep it together.

"Thank you!" She exclaimed. "It's so sweet of you, Daryl. You didn't have to get me this."

"Didn't go out of my way or anythin'. Just saw it and figured you could use it," Daryl lied, knowing full well that he specifically had been looking for a notebook for Beth when he was going through those houses today. Why he couldn't have just told her that was a mystery to him.

"I'll consider it a birthday gift."

"Birthday gift?"

Beth opened up the notebook and flipped through the white pages. "I'm eighteen now, at least I'm pretty sure that I am. I was born on June third and considering the heat, I'd say it's around late July by now. It's too hot to still be early summer."

Beth continued to admire the notebook. It was strange to see how something to simple could make her so happy. "I can't wait to write in this." Beth took a step forward and threw her arms around Daryl. _Oh no. _He didn't know what to do. No one had ever really given him a proper and genuine hug before and the sensation was so foreign to him. He let his hand drift up tentatively to rest on her elbow.

Was that normal?

Beth's head was resting against his chest, her arms hugging tight around his mid-section. It was nice. "Thanks," she expressed, pulling away to look up at him. He immediately missed the contact and thought it was stupid of him to even think that. He tried to keep his gaze on the wall but he couldn't, giving in and meeting Beth's gorgeous blue eyes. "I really do appreciate you gettin' this for me."

Daryl nodded his head, not saying anything back.

"You know I was thinkin' about what you told me earlier about your family," she started in a gentle voice. "I'm sure it was hard for you to tell that to me. It sounds like you went through a lot, probably more than you told me, and more than I realize. You don't need to tell me anything you don't want to. And that's totally okay. I wanted you to know that I'm not gonna go around tellin' Maggie or Glenn or anyone about it. It's your business and you get to tell who you want. But I'm glad you told me. I'm glad you…felt like you could. Does that make sense?"

"It does," he assured her.

Beth didn't know about half of the other shit he went through as a child. She didn't know about how his mother caused the fire she died in and how that left him alone with his old man after Merle was gone. She didn't know about the drunken rage his father would be in and how he would take it all out on Daryl when he was little. All of the scars on his back were a reminder of that horrible childhood he had to go through. He never grew out of those scars. They followed him around everywhere.

Daryl had skeletons in his closet that he didn't want anyone to know about. He knew it wasn't good to hold onto shit like that and to hide from his past. Only problem was that he didn't know any better. He'd been doing the same thing for years now, keeping all of his secrets locked away for no one to know about except for him. Now it felt like some of them were pouring out, clawing their way to the surface until he couldn't keep it in anymore. Crazy thing was that he would let them.

Maybe it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world for someone to know who he truly was, whoever that is.

"Alright, good. I feel like I went on a tangent there," Beth admitted. She moved across the room to set down her new notebook. Judith stretched her arms up out of her makeshift cradle to signify that she wanted out of it. "This one never likes to sleep when other people are around. She likes to be in all the action and be the center of attention," she commented, picking Judith up into her arms and carrying her over to Daryl. The little girl clung onto Beth, her head resting against Beth's chest.

"I'm going to go walk around with her for a bit. Do you wanna come with?"

He probably shouldn't. No, he really shouldn't. _Tell her you have something else to do. _

"Sure," he agreed.

There we went again, going against his inner monologue.


	4. Chapter 4

Daryl looked for Beth when he was done for the day, almost every day in the past two weeks or so. He doesn't know why he does it but it is beginning to form into a habit of his, a routine. It's automatic by this point. He actually went looking for her like some kind of lost puppy trying to find its owner.

How does he feel about that? Well, it's a complicated answer, one that he tried not mull over too much.

Beth was either in one of two places at the end of the day, the kitchen or laundry room. He found that out real quick. He would follow the sound of her singing, her beautiful voice that for some reason he never really appreciated until now. When he would find her, he watched her for a few seconds before letting her know of his presence—which by the way is super fucking creepy, yet he still did it against his better judgment. Because guess what? He's an idiot.

Way to go Daryl. Way to go.

He doesn't mean to be creepy about it. In fact, it's the last thing he wanted. But after a day of killing dead people who wanted to rip the flesh off of him and devour him completely, the sight of Beth singing and smiling was something he wanted to hold onto as a snapshot image after a day of dealing with death. It was nice to know not everyone was so sullen around here, and by everyone he mainly means himself.

There was some kind of aura around Beth that made him feel drawn to her. He knew that much. Maybe she was his outlet, his way of dealing with the horror he dealt with all day long, every day. Beth was this incredible light that he needed to stay sane. Sometimes he stayed with her for a few minutes and other times it was way more than that.

He never expected to like being around her so much.

Merle would have joked that he was whipped or something stupid like that. He wasn't. He couldn't be. He simply enjoyed her company, that was all.

No matter what, he still heard Merle's mocking voice in his head.

_Why ya followin' little blondie around there_, _little brother? Actin' like you some kind of lost animal. Didn't teach you to be that way. Practically stalking her. _

_What do ya need her for, huh? _

_She don't want you there. _

_Go back to killin' shit and leave Little Bo Peep ta do the chores. It's what women were born ta do anyways. Ain't your job to check on her._

Fuck his brother and his stupid ass opinions. He wished he could get Merle's voice out if his head. It was always there, never letting up, never giving him some sort of a break. Drowning it out had become easier with the prison group around. He could rationalize his thoughts better, ignore his brother's annoying voice that wanted him to do stupid things—idiotic things. It was either pressing him to do something he didn't want to do or telling he wasn't good enough.

Exactly what the real life Merle did to him.

He wanted it to stop, to sever that grip his brother had on him. It sounded brutal, and it was. Only he doesn't know how to get rid of the voice. It had been there for so long. Getting rid of it seemed damn near impossible.

There was a time where he would have listened to it. Not anymore. He was done with that. He didn't want to be the person his brother wanted him to be, or worse, the person Merle was.

He was out there somewhere, Daryl is sure of it. Merle knew how to survive anything. Part of him wanted to know where he was and the other part didn't. He didn't want to know. He didn't want to feel obligated to go find him. Merle would screw this up for him, this whole prison thing that they all had going for them. Admittedly, he liked it here. He liked the people and what he could do around here. He felt useful for once in his life, like he was actually good at something.

And it's not like he doesn't care for his brother, he does. For the longest time it had been only the two of them taking on the world. Their separation had caused him a lot of internal struggle in the beginning—who was he without Merle? Now it was different. Merle wasn't here to boss him around, no orders to follow from him.

He got an idea of who he was without his brother. Beth had pointed out days ago that he was a person who people relied on, looked up to. He doesn't believe the looking up to part, but he can see how others rely on him.

So if he somehow liked being around Beth he was damn well going to do that. He wasn't going to listen to the mocking voice inside his head that would taunt him about it anymore. What good would that even do except give him a raging headache? And he isn't looking to pop a Tylenol every two seconds because Merle's voice is in his head and won't let up. Screw that.

Going back to Beth, in the past few weeks he kept coming up with excuses to be around her after he was back from a number of runs he went on with various people. He would grab things for Judith and insist on being the one to bring them to her. He does like to see Judith too. That little one has had a special place in Daryl's heart from the day she was born. He was fond of her to say the least, and was even fonder of her caretaker.

Maybe Beth didn't see right through him and his excuses, maybe she did.

He wasn't sure about anything anymore. Ever since the world went to shit it was all a blur to him. It used to be black and white to Daryl. Plain and simple. Now everything was covered in a gray mess.

Weeks went by and blended together with Daryl going out on a few more runs with people that took up a bulk of the day. They had collected plenty of things that they were in need of while they were out so he guessed that they would not be a need to go on another run for a while unless they needed something specific.

However, today was one of those days where there was not much to do around the prison. Daryl felt misplaced. He didn't have anywhere to go or anything to actually do; nothing needed to be done. There were few walkers that were around the fences, none of them gathering over the nighttime. They had just been on several runs recently so the prison was practically fully stocked with all of the necessities.

Mostly people were relaxing while they could, seizing the rare opportunity. Even Rick had stopped playing farmer for the day and was spending some quality time with Carl and Judith, something he had not done in a while.

Daryl felt like he couldn't stop working. When he stopped working that meant he was alone with his thoughts, a place he didn't want to be in right now.

Daryl sat on his bed and stared at the wall, trying to think of something to do around this place. It was midday by this point and he couldn't do nothing for the rest of the evening. What was he supposed to do? Stare at the blank wall all evening? That would make him go insane.

He heard the familiar sound of footsteps and humming coming down the row of cells. His ears could pick that sound out of a crowd if he wanted to. Daryl watched the open space by the front of his cell until Beth appeared. He could tell that she was in her usual cheerful mood, smiling like she always did when she ran into him. "Hey, stranger," she commented. "Haven't seen you around lately."

"Sorry. I've been busy. Volunteered to go out on a bunch of runs this week. It paid off though, got a lot of stuff we needed."

"That's okay. Carol and Maggie have been keeping me really busy too. There's been lots to do. And Judith had a bit of a cough the past few days so I've been up with her a lot at night so I've been trying to catch up on some sleep during the day."

Why didn't he hear about this? Now that he inspected her further, he could see the darker color that was under her eyes. He could not ignore the concern he felt. "Is she sick? Did she get you sick?"

Beth shook her head and leaned against the wall. "She had a little bit of a cold for a couple days there. It wasn't serious. We already had some medicine for it and my dad said she would be fine. She didn't pass it on to anyone. So don't worry. I'm germ free. Nothing contagious coming your way."

"Not worried about that," he replied. "Just making sure you two are okay." He scratched his chin before he quickly added, "Next time can you let me know? I'll check in on you…and Judith."

Beth smiled at him. "Sure thing." She glanced around his plain cell after pushing herself off of the wall. There wasn't much to look at. His cell was not like Beth's. He never felt the need to decorate it or anything like that; he did admire that about Beth though, that she was creative. He had always kept things like that to a minimum. A bed and some sheets were perfect for him. Nothing more was necessary.

"What are you up to today? Doesn't seem like much is goin' on. Things are quiet. It's strange."

He agreed. There was something eerie about this day. He couldn't describe the feeling. It was sort of like the feeling of forgetting something and not knowing what is was that was forgotten. It was a feeling that pestered him all day long. He kept waiting for the ball to drop and something horrible happen to interrupt the peacefulness the prison was currently experiencing. Nothing like this lasted for too long.

Daryl glanced around the room and found his crossbow that was leaned up against the wall. He almost felt like he had been neglecting it lately, not needing to use it much. He killed a few walkers here and there but other than that it had been resting in the same spot in his cell. He missed using it, as weird as that sounded. His crossbow was like a limb to him. He felt attached to it in a strange way, always had been. Maybe because it was the one thing that was strictly his. It belonged only to Daryl. "I was thinkin' maybe I'd go huntin since there's not much else to do around here. Rick don't need me for anythin'. People are all doing their own thing. Figure I might as well go out while I can."

"Yeah, you haven't been out in a while. We haven't been eating a lot of meat around here, have we?"

His eyes narrowed at hers. "Are ya hinting at somethin' over there, Greene?"

Beth took a few steps and clutched the metal at the end of his bunk bed. She pressed her cheek against it and flashed him a guilty looking grin. "I'm not hinting," she defended weakly and not the least bit believable. "Only making an observation."

"Pfft."

Beth laughed and pointed over to his crossbow. "You gonna bring me something good back that I can make dinner with?"

"Possibly."

"And no more squirrels!" She pleaded, closing her eyes. "Please. I don't think I can ever eat another one."

Yeah, it wasn't exactly the best to Daryl either. He preferred deer meat over mostly anything. It was a shame that there wasn't too many of those hanging around. "Squirrel not your favorite?"

She opened her eyes and furrowed her brows. "It's not anyone's favorite, Daryl. It's _squirrel._ A furry little animal that runs up trees and eats acorns all day long. How good could it possibly taste?"

They shared a laugh about it. He's sure that Beth is one of the only ones around here that can make him truly laugh. That's another thing he liked about her (boy, was that list beginning to get long the more time he spent with her).

"How long did it take you to learn how to use that?" She pointed back over to where his crossbow was. "Seems difficult."

Daryl shook his head, not even wanting to think about the length of time it took him to learn how to use a crossbow. Sure, he had started out as a kid, but it took a long time to get acclimated to the crossbow and how to accurately shoot it. "Far too long. Took forever, and I ain't kiddin' 'bout that. Was just a kid when I started out and the damn crossbow was so heavy. I didn't think I'd ever learn how to use it. Kinda hated it at first. Guess it grew on me after a while, after I started gettin' good at it."

Wow. All she had asked for was how long it took to learn and he went on a rambling paragraph about it. Nice work there, Dixon.

"I wish I knew how to use a weapon like that. Any kind of weapon, really. I'm kind of useless when it comes to that sort of stuff. And you're so…_amazing_ at it."

He brushed of the compliment. "Just gotta find what works for you, ya know, what you're comfortable with and practice. Practice all the time. That's all it really takes." Daryl racked his brain for what he thought Beth would be good at using as a weapon. He had seen her down by the fence with the walkers, plunging the pole into their heads like it was nothing. He guessed that she could be pretty good with a knife if she were taught. "Hey, maybe Michonne will let you use her katana."

She let out a laugh that revealed her disbelief in that last part. "Right. Me? With a sword? That sounds…frightening. To all who are involved."

"Never know," he suggested. "Could be what you're good at. Don't knock it till ya try it."

He wasn't completely serious. He himself could not see little Beth Greene swinging around a katana and chopping of walker's heads. Though it would be something he would pay to see, if it ever happened. An intriguing thought it was.

Daryl noticed a stack of thin books in Beth's hands. "What's that?"

"My dad is gonna be teachin' Maggie and me more first aid stuff today. He has this whole plan ready. How to do stitches is on the list today. I'm actually gonna be practicing on who knows what." She scrunched up her face, rubbing her hand along one of her arms. "It's kinda scary. Could you even imagine gettin' stitched up by me? I'd end up doing more harm than good."

"I think you'll to fine," he encouraged. He did believe that. Beth's hands were so small and delicate that he thought she would be an excellent candidate to do intricate incisions with a needle and thread. "He tryin' to make you into the prison doctor?"

"I hope not. Maggie would be more suited for that. She was always interested in that kind of stuff. Blood used to freak me out. Not anymore though. Not after all we've been through."

Blood had bothered him when he was little. He would see Merle come in the house with blood dripping down his face and arms after getting into a brutally physical fight with some loser over a girl. He remembered flinching away after seeing him in the small bathroom with bloody towels all around. All that blood scared him since he was not even eight years old at the time. That was all before he started hunting, before he learned how to skin and gut animals. Then blood didn't bother him at all; it was part of the job. He became accustomed to it.

"Gotten used to it?"

"I guess I have." Beth shifted from foot to foot. A look of uncertainty took over her face as her eyes drifted up to the ceiling. To him it looked like she was trying to hold back some type of emotion. "I keep wondering why all of a sudden he wants us to learn this kind of stuff when he does it just fine himself. And then I thought…maybe he's preparing for a day when he's not here no more. He wants to know that Maggie and me can handle taking care of people if they're wounded, patchin' them up and all."

Oh.

Daryl never thought about her daddy dying before. Of course the threat of death always lingered around them, but he never put much thought into her father dying. Daryl was more of a 'in the moment, let's focus on today' kind of guy. He didn't think all that much into the future, which he should probably start doing. Hershel was like the glue that kept them all together. He was a good man, one they could all use in their lives. Without him here, well, he didn't want to think about that.

He felt like he needed to say something to make her feel better about the situation.

"Not such a bad thing," he assured her. He then realized that he needed to further elaborate on what he had said. "To be teachin' you this stuff, I mean. Handing down his knowledge to his daughters. Not the other part."

Beth pushed her lips together, taking in a deep breath before expelling it. "It'll happen. I know it will. We don't gotta skirt around the issue. It's the life cycle, I guess. Just weird to think about him not bein' here."

"Then it's good you get time with him, you and Maggie both do. Enjoy it."

Daryl got up off the bed and went over to grab his crossbow. He had a feeling this conversation was coming to an end since it had taken a slightly morbid turn.

"I should go meet Maggie. My dad won't be happy if we're late." Beth lingered in the entry way of his cell once she had moved over to it. "Hey, I wanna ask you something."

"Shoot."

"You got something against sleeves that I don't know about?" Beth asked him, half-jokingly.

He took a glance down at his button up shirt that he had messily cut the sleeves off with a knife. He smirked at her question. Leave it to Beth to question him on his attire. "In this kind of weather? Who would want them? They're a pain in the neck if you ask me. Never liked them."

Beth examined her own bare arms. "I guess."

"Oh, please. We all know the real reason," Glenn interrupted, passing in front of Daryl's cell on his way to the stairs. He had this wide grin on his face as he continued to walk past them. "He just wants to show off those muscles."

Beth laughed. "They _are _very nice," she acknowledged, turning to him to admire his sleeveless arms. Most likely he was seeing things because he could have sworn that he saw the faintest blush on her cheeks.

He felt an awkward tension inside. Daryl couldn't help but smile nervously. Was there a cliff anywhere near that he could fling himself off of?

"Maggie's waiting for you outside, Beth."

"Tell her I'll be right out," she said to him as Glenn passed by them completely and went down the stairs.

Beth put her hands on her hips. "Before I go, do I need to tell you to be careful out there?"

"No need. Always am."

"I know you are."

Daryl slung his crossbow over his shoulders and joined Beth by the opening of the cell.

Beth cocked her head to side and looked at him momentarily, making him a bit fidgety. She reached her hand up towards his face and there was no way for him to stop the flinch before it happened. People (aka his old man and his brother—even Merle's simpleminded junkie friends) normally didn't raise a hand at him unless it was followed a forceful punch, a hard slap, or some kind of unwanted attack. He couldn't help but flinch, it was a habit, one that was drilled into him from an early age. Beth noticed, but gently let her fingers brush against the pieces of his hair that were being unruly and were now covering the side of his forehead. "Your hair is gettin' so long. You've never let it get this long before."

For a second he forgot how to talk because Beth Greene had her hand pressed against the side of his face. Contact like this didn't happen to him and he didn't know what to do about it. "Guess I should trim it."

"Don't," she advised, dropping her hand back to her side. "It looks good this way."

Daryl dropped his gaze from her and chose to look at the floor instead. He shouldn't have but he smirked knowing that Beth liked his hair this way. Having his hair this length didn't bother him at all, in fact he kind of liked it. But if she hadn't said anything he probably would have ended up taking some scissors to it. "M'kay. I'll keep it."

_**A/N: I cannot even tell you how many times I rewrote this chapter. I had writer's block all day long (probably because I am trying to study for a test at the same time-note to self: not a good idea!). Hopefully this came out good. I'm finally happy with it (after battling with it for hours and now I still need to finish studying). **_

_**But thank you to everyone who has been so kind to review, favorite, follow etc. I'm so happy you all like the story so far.**_

_**And on my final note, anyone else doing a fourth of July weekend Walking Dead marathon (is it on anywhere else but the United States?) I'm headed north to my house in the woods to sit on the couch and watch it all day long for three days with my two best friends. Am I alone in this madness? But I'm always inspired when I go up there so hopefully I have more chapters for you all soon! Have a wonderful weekend everyone. **_


	5. Chapter 5

Michonne kept tapping her foot against the floor of the car in her place in the passenger seat. She stared straight ahead, moving her head from side to side while she looked out the front windshield. He had no clue what she was looking for. All there was around here was the paved road in front of them and a bunch of trees on either side.

"Why you keep doin' that?" He snapped, a bit annoyed by her constant actions. Michonne had been antsy all day long as they were on a run for some ammo. "It's distracting."

Michonne released a sigh the showed her own annoyance by the question. "If you must know, I'm looking for familiar surroundings. I want to get back before the sun sets. It looks like we're close to the prison from here."

"Why?"

"I made a promise to Beth that I would show her something."

Michonne doesn't divulge any more details. She kept it plain, simple, and very vague. It's her usual way of communicating. She is much like Daryl in that way but at this point that was not good enough for him to go on.

However, it peaked his interest. "Show her what?"

Michonne chuckled and swiveled her head so she was looking over at him. "Defend herself."

Defend herself? What? Was Michonne teaching Martial Arts classes in her free time now?

"How you gonna do that?"

"What's with the third degree?" Michonne questioned with a skeptical tone laced in her voice. "You know curiosity killed the cat."

He knew then that he was going to have to drag this out of her.

"Good thing I ain't a fucking feline then. And it ain't a third degree. I just wanna know."

Daryl took his eyes off the road for a mere two seconds to throw Michonne one of her well known glares even though that would not get him any closer to the answer he was looking for. When his eyes went back to the road, he jerked the car sideways to avoid a walker he hadn't seen in the road until the last minute. Damn bastard came out of nowhere.

Michonne grabbed onto the side handle of the door and threw a glare right back at him. If looks could kill he'd be dead right then. "Maybe I should drive from now on."

Daryl gripped the steering wheel. "Don't change the subject."

Michonne chuckled to herself again. "I'm not changing the subject. I'm actually highly intrigued as to why you want to know so much about what I plan to teach Beth. Are you worried I might _corrupt _her with my skills?"

There are thousands of questions that he wanted to ask her but her comment made him bite his tongue and not do that. Highly intrigued? What was she trying to say to him? As far as Daryl is concerned, there was nothing wrong with wanting to know what Michonne was going to do with Beth.

Daryl lightened up his voice so the urgency and annoyance wouldn't come though as strongly. "Do I gotta ask you again?"

"I'm teaching her the simple stuff, Daryl. The things she needs to know like how to protect herself when—if needed." Michonne shifted in her seat and reached for her katana. For a second he thought that she might threaten him with it so he would stop asking questions but she took her sword half way out of the case and examined it instead. "And I'm gonna let use this baby right here."

Daryl is speechless. He flashed back to the conversation he had with Beth in his cell about weapon use. This sparked his curiosity further, wondering why Beth was taking an interest in this. "What? You're gonna let her use _that_?"

"Yes."

She said it without any questioning or hesitation in her voice, as if they were talking about Beth borrowing a shirt.

Daryl quickly glanced over at Michonne suspiciously before he looked back to the road. "You feelin' alright?"

"Yes. I'm feeling fine," Michonne assured him, though he is not completely sure of that. "Relax. I'm not giving it to her for her to keep. I'm simply showing her how to maneuver sharp objects. I thought, hey, what better than this and who better than me to teach? Don't worry. She's not going to be running around the prison with a sword in her hands. It'll just be for a few times."

Daryl fell silent for a minute, trying to wrap his brain around this whole situation. It didn't make any sense at all. Michonne was possessive over her katana, which he understood since he didn't like it when anyone attempted to touch his crossbow. Hell would freeze over before he handed his crossbow over to somebody willingly. And here she was, telling him that she was going to voluntarily give her most prized possession to Beth to learn how to use all because she thought Beth should learn to maneuver sharp weapons. Thing is, the last time he checked there were not an abundance of swords lying around the cells. So when would Beth ever need to use something similar, or when would there be the availability to use something like that as a weapon?

Was he missing something?

"She ask you to use it?"

"She never asked to. But I figure I'll teach her on the side. I'll be teaching her the ins and outs of everything else first and then see how it goes with this." Out of his peripheral vision, Daryl could tell that Michonne had gone back to admiring the shiny blade of her weapon. "It'll bring me back to the days when I was learning. Beside all of that, Beth made a good case to me. I know she takes care of Judith but she thinks she needs to learn. She feels like she's the only one of the group who doesn't know how to do that sort of stuff. It makes sense for her to learn." Michonne stopped for a second and continued in a more serious voice. "If anything where to happen I'd want her to have some defensive moves down. Don't you think so?"

Daryl is sure that those were the most words Michonne has ever spoken to him in one straight shot. But he saw the point of all this, why it was necessary.

"M'not sayin' it's a bad idea. It's good. It's just…you think that her having that is a good idea?" He motioned over to the katana that Michonne had in her hands.

"You're asking a lot of questions," Michonne remarked as she resumed to stare out the side window. "That's not normal for you. You're never this chatty."

Daryl shut his mouth and focused on the road. He felt like he hadn't gotten anywhere with this and Michonne was getting too assuming for his liking. Sure, it was abnormal for him to ask a lot of questions but that didn't mean that he never had them; he just usually didn't feel the need to voice them like everyone else did.

"You're not the only one who is close to her, Daryl. I spend plenty of time with her and Judith. The two of them are nice to be around. She trusts me. Give me a week or two and that girl will be a fine tuned version of the girl she is right now. She'll probably be able to—oh!" Michonne moved her head back to the side so she could look over at Daryl with a smirk on her face. "Is that what you're afraid of? Beth Greene being able to knock you on your ass?"

Right. That's what he's afraid if. It's more like Beth being taught how to defend herself by the woman who could slice a man in half from head to toe if she wanted to—and he is surprised he hasn't seen it happen yet. Excuse him if the idea of Michonne letting Beth mess with her katana raised his anxiety level.

Daryl snorted and shook his head from side to side. "You know I could drop you off right here? I'm sure it would be a hell of a nice walk back to the prison."

"And _you_ know I could kill you in your sleep without a trace when I got there."

—

Things at the prison could switch out of nowhere. It was like night and day. One hour there were few walkers at the fences, next there was about a hundred all spread out around the fences. He only heard about it because Glenn came by and told him that that Rick requested him outside for fence duty to help get rid of the walkers.

He had been with Hershel when Glenn passed by them and told him that Rick needed him by the fences. Unfortunately, Hershel was in the middle of stitching Daryl's arm up after he slipped up and partially fell down a hill while out trying to hunt. _Another _goddamned hill. As if the one the back by the Greene farm didn't do enough damage after that horse kicked him off.

Daryl never believed in déjà vu until the moment he went falling to the ground off a fucking hill.

This time there was no horse to blame. It was his own damn fault that he was injured. But, hey, at least he didn't shoot himself with another arrow. That was on the plus side, right? Explaining that wouldn't have been pleasant. He could imagine what he could say if that were to have happened—'hey everyone, guess what? I'm an idiot who likes to fall down hills in my spare time and injure myself with my own weapon. Aren't you glad you keep me around? A talented asshole I am.'

Yeah. He's happy he didn't need to do that.

He had been reckless, not paying as much attention to his surroundings as he should have. It wasn't like him to be that way. He had been too distracted by other thoughts. The ground had slid out from underneath him without warning and he was gone. It would not have been as bad if his crossbow hadn't gauged into his arm and opened up a fresh wound. Then again, it looked worse than it was.

"You're not going anywhere fast, you hear me? I need to finish this up so it doesn't get infected." Hershel's voice was stern and Daryl felt the need to comply with the man. After all, he couldn't go outside with a needle and thread still stuck in his skin. What could he do? Stick the needle into his skin for safe keeping and tell Hershel to finish it later? No way. Getting walker blood into his wound could be a death sentence.

He saw right through Hershel's act though, he was stalling now. Hershel didn't want him going outside to help because of his arm. Sure, his arm was fucked up but that didn't mean it was immobile. A lot of the blood had been wiped away so it wasn't as bad as when he first walked in.

Beth walked in at that moment with extra medical supplies when she noticed Daryl sitting in the chair and Hershel about to get up and leave. "Hold this," he told Daryl, handing the needle that had the thread through it over to him.

Wait a minute. He was sure that doctors were not allowed to hand over stuff like this to the patient in the middle of a procedure. Yes, Hershel was a veterinarian, but still. Didn't he know better?

Daryl grabbed onto the needle with his other hand. "You serious?"

"I need to go get some scissors to finish this up and cut the thread." Hershel turned towards his youngest daughter who was hovering just past the doorway and looking on at the both of them. "Bethy, keep an eye on him. Make sure he doesn't up and walk out on me before I'm done."

Beth allowed a brief smile to appear on her face. She must have known that Daryl would contemplate doing something like that. She knew what her father was up to as well—keeping him here on purpose so he couldn't go outside. Apparently he wasn't supposed to do anything strenuous that would rip out the stitches. As if that would stop him. He could suffer through the pain until the walkers were gone.

"Will do." Once Hershel had passed through the door Beth spoke up again and said, "I heard about what happened. Are you alright?"

"Fine. It's just a scratch," he grumbled towards the floor, ignoring the embarrassment he felt. He hadn't told anyone about the falling down the hill part, strictly the falling on his crossbow part. And that was bad enough already. He wasn't even sure if people believed him.

Beth walked over to examine his arm more closely. He saw the worry in her eyes as she looked on. It was actually kind of nice to see that she was concerned. People usually didn't pay much attention to him in that way. No one had his entire life.

"Scratches don't usually result in twenty stitches." She shuffled around in her arm-full of supplies. When she found what she was looking for she shook a bottle out in front of the both of them. "I've got pain-killers that aren't expired yet. Need one?"

"More like five," he retorted. His arm badly stung from the wound and from the stitching. Believe it or not, having a needle pierced into your skin repeatedly and a thread pulled through is not a lot of fun. It's torturous, and from the look of it Hershel still had a couple more to do. How exciting.

He is thankful when Beth popped open the bottle and handed him over two white tablets that he swallowed without water. If only the pain would go away instantaneously. He still needed to go back outside and help the others once Hershel was done. The man could stall all he wanted but that was not going to prevent Daryl from going to the fences. He was not about to let his injury stop him from doing his duty. Once it was stitched completely Daryl was out of there.

Just then Daryl spotted a perfectly good looking pair of scissors on the counter in the far corner, making him roll his eyes. "Tell your dad to let me go do fence duty. He's keeping me here on purpose. Rick needs me to help with the walkers."

"No need," she said over her shoulder while walking over to the counter, meeting his eyes. "It's already taken care of."

"What do you mean? Glenn just came by and said they needed help."

"I mean that I just told Rick that I could cover for you while I was on my way here. He didn't know about your arm." She held up the medical supplies that was in her hand before setting it down on the counter by the other supplies. "I was just coming in here to drop this off before heading back outside."

Daryl let out a loud sigh. "You don't have to do that. The stitches ain't a big deal. I'm fine to—"

"Stop it," she interrupted. "Don't you dare be stubborn about this. That's what friends do, Daryl, they help each other out. You're injured and you have stitches that will hurt like hell if you pull them out. I know you. I know that you'll go out there anyways. So I said I'll take your place. No big deal."

A friend? Did she really consider him that? Of course, the feeling is mutual with Beth, he thought of her as a friend too. Which, by the way, was beyond bizarre to him. If someone would have said to him a year or even a few months ago that he would end up being friends with Beth Greene then he would have laughed in their face and told them they needed to be checked into a psychiatric ward. He would have thought that person belonged in a nut house if they thought that way—Beth Greene would never in a million years want to be his friend.

Yet here they were.

They were proof that this world worked in strange ways.

He contemplated mentioning something to Beth. Was it any of his business to be asking about the whole lessons with Michonne thing that was already arranged and underway? It had been four days since Michonne had told him about that. He had remained eager to understand what the driving force behind it was. Before Beth could leave he said, "Michonne told be something interesting about you."

"Oh, _really_?" The way she said it made him realize that she specifically knew what he was talking about.

"Mmm-hmm."

Beth gave him a sly smile. "I think it's about time that I start pulling more weight around here," she confessed, brushing off her hands. "Carol offered to help with Judith more so I thought, why not? I want to learn. I'm tired of being the weak link of the group."

The wording of 'weak link' made him clench his teeth together. The fact that she thought that about herself bothered Daryl way more than it should have. He needed to say something that would help the situation. "You ain't a weak link, Beth. Ain't like that at all."

"Not for much longer, hopefully," she countered.

He would have liked to tell her in a better way that no one saw her as the weakest member of the group. He sure didn't. However, he got the feeling that Beth had made up her mind that she was already. She also had her mind made up that she was going to change that.

"Why Michonne?"

She rolled her eyes, as if the answer was obvious. It wasn't to him. "Because she's _Michonne. _She's great at stuff like that. I figure she's the best one to teach me. My first thought was you…but I figured you wouldn't want that responsibility. And you're busy all the time so I asked Michonne. She said she didn't mind."

"Hershel know about this?"

Oh, God. He he went again with the third degree. _Stop interrogating her._

Beth crossed her arms. "He knows. Now you relax and take care of your arm while go do fence duty. And don't you even think about coming outside with your arm still like that."

It was kind of unbelievable that Beth Greene was taking his place for fence duty and ordering him to stay inside so his injury could properly heal. He didn't know how he felt about this, not following up on going outside. But there wasn't much he could do about it now. Beth had left and he sat there waiting for Hershel to come back and finish up his stitches.

While he was the only one in the room, he thought about how Beth showed so much care towards him not injuring himself further. She wanted him to get better and not force anymore pain onto himself. She volunteered to take his place doing one of the worst jobs at the prison that would result in walker brains all over her without hesitation, even though he was willing to do it despite his arm. He decided that he liked that, liked the feeling that it gave him. Knowing someone truly cared was something he was still getting used to, something he didn't know how to react to half the time. Maybe eventually he would figure it out.

—

It didn't take long for the wound to heal and he was back in the game, back to his normal routine. Daryl climbed up the stairs to the guard tower to relieve Michonne of her position. He found her in the usual spot, standing up against the edge of the wall, staring out the window with a blank face on. Sometimes he wondered what that woman could be thinking about.

He cleared his throat to let her know he was there. Daryl usually moved stealthily out of habit and the last thing he wanted to do was sneak up on her. Michonne could do some serious damage with one swift flick of her wrist with that katana of hers. He sure as hell isn't looking to lose any body parts tonight. He quite liked having his arms attached to his body. "Go on inside. I'll take over from here."

"You sure? I don't mind being out here."

"Been out here all day. Get some sleep," he told her.

She didn't argue back. Michonne collected the semi-automatic she took out here that was propped up against the wall. She reached her hand back to touch the edge of the katana that was placed around her back in its usual spot. He guessed she did that to make sure it hadn't magically disappeared on her. Perhaps she had been practicing with it inside the guard tower and wanted to make sure it was back in its rightful place.

Daryl did that often. Not the practicing part but before he closed his eyes at night he had to make sure that his crossbow was close to him. Sometimes if he woke up in the middle of the night he would reach out and make sure that it was still there and he could easily grab it if necessary.

It's a weird quirk of his.

Before she could leave, he asked, "How has teachin' Beth goin'? Been at it for a little while now."

Michonne smile devilishly and crossed her arms over her chest. "Let me tell you, that girl is a natural. A lot like me in that way when I first started out, not to brag or anything. I didn't expect her to pick up on everything so quickly. I think she has most of it down pat as long as she keeps up with it all. She was very determined. I admire that about her."

Daryl admired that about Beth too. She could do anything if she put her mind to it. Beth had a faith that could move worlds if she wanted to; faith in herself and faith in others. Nothing could destroy that.

Daryl eyed Michonne's sword and tried to imagine what Beth looked like with it. "You let her have that yet?"

Michonne looked like a proud PTA mom who had a kid with straight A's. "Yes, I have. A few times. And damn can that girl swing a sword when she wants to."

Who would have thought? Michonne the walker slayer slash miracle worker.

"Don't be tellin' me we're gonna be havin' another samurai 'round here," he lightly joked. "One's enough."

Michonne only smiled and headed for the latch to go down the stairs of the guard tower. "No. I think she's more comfortable with a gun in her hands than my sword." He can't even begin to explain how crazy that was to hear. "She knows how to use them but not very well. Guns are clearly not my specialty. I told her that she should talk to someone else about that. Want me to send her your way?"

He didn't think before he spoke. "I guess."

"Bet she'd be pretty good with that thing too." She nodded in the direction of the crossbow that Daryl was holding at his side with one hand. He looked down at it and pondered the idea. "Just a thought for you. Goodnight."

"Night."

_**A/N: Watching The Walking Dead marathon made me love Michonne's character all of again so I decided to throw her into this chapter. I love a strong Beth character and I thought to myself, who would be the best person to train Beth? And Michonne was the first person to come to mind. Hopefully it's not very OOC for her but it's the direction I really wanted to take.  
**_

_**I also need to say thank you again to all you wonderful individuals who consistently read. I am shocked by the number of follows/reviews/favorites this story has already. Consider me amazed :) **_


	6. Chapter 6

"I need you to stay here and watch over things for me," Rick told him as he stepped outside of the prison with Daryl in tow.

This was madness. Rick ran into one scared teenage kid in the woods who told him about how apparently some shit is going down at Woodbury. Now all of a sudden he thought it was his responsibility to check it out and see if there were any survivors.

Michonne had briefly told them about Woodbury without a lot of details. There was not a lot of information that she had been willing to tell but from the sound of it, it seemed like an alright town, with the exception of their apparent leader who seemed like he was on some sort of a power trip. Who the hell named themselves The Governor? And who the hell was fine and dandy with calling someone that? Completely normal? No. Did no alarm bells ever ring for these people that maybe the guy was a bit off his rocker?

Whatever Michonne's reason for leaving was went unknown. All she had said was she left a friend there after she got a weird vibe from the leader of the town, which was understandable from Daryl's viewpoint. He would have booked it out of there too. The reason Michonne got to the prison was because she ran into Glenn and Maggie who brought her back after she was shot by some psycho coming after her in the woods.

"Listen, you don't gotta do this alone. I'll come with you. You'll need some sort of backup," Daryl argued.

He made a good point but Rick was not having any of it.

"No." Rick yanked open one of their trucks and threw in a rifle as he got into the driver's side. Daryl was bothered by how this was happening so fast. "I'm goin' in alone. I don't know what's happenin' there. I'm not gonna risk your life too. Stay here and keep things in order."

"What am I supposed to tell people, Rick? Huh? That you decided to go over to that place where that lunatic who calls himself 'The Governor' decided to let in a whole bunch of walkers to start munchin' on the people who live there for snack time? Now's not the time to be a knight in shining armor. It ain't your job—"

"It's my obligation," Rick concluded, his face serious. "My moral obligation." Daryl knew that there would be no reasoning with Rick; he had made his decision already and there would be no changing his mind. "I don't know how long I'll be gone for. I don't even know if what that kid told me was true but I'm gonna find out. All I need you to do is keep these people right here safe."

Daryl gave in. "Fine."

Rick shut the door and started the engine. Daryl didn't waste any time with running down to the gate and opening the two of them so Rick could drive through. Rick rolled down the window before he took off away from the prison. "Don't alarm anyone more than they should be," he instructed. "Keep an eye out for anyone who could be coming this way."

Daryl gave him a nod before he locked the gates back up and let Rick drive to Woodbury. This was stupid. He should be there with Rick. What he should have done was give Rick no option and just got in the truck with him. In his opinion, going it alone was a terrible decision. He hoped that it wasn't going to backfire.

"What's going on?" Beth's voice startled Daryl. He hadn't realized she was behind him.

His first instinct is to tell her that nothing is going on and that everything is fine. The problem was that Daryl didn't think that he could lie to her about this. He decided to sugar coat the truth.

"Rick thinks he needs to check on Woodbury. Some guy told him that some crazy stuff was goin' on and the guy runnin' the place let some of walkers in to the town. Said something about a mental breakdown. The kid's words, not mine. Kid ran off before Rick could ask more 'bout it."

"He's going alone?"

"Told me he wasn't gonna risk anyone else's life."

"Will he be okay?"

They both watched as the dirt from the truck was kicked up as Rick drove away and disappeared. To be honest, he was not entirely sure of the answer. "He's Rick. He'll be just fine."

His answer seemed to put Beth at ease. He wished it could do the same for him.

—

Hours went by with no sign of Rick or anyone from Woodbury turning up at the prison. Daryl had stopped pacing down the empty hallways to go back outside. He thought about going and trying to find this Woodbury place. Michonne had told Rick how to get there before he left so she would be able to get Daryl there as well.

Then Rick's words came back into his head. He was right, Daryl needed to stay here.

He didn't like this one bit. The balance of things was messed up with Rick gone and it made Daryl antsy. He didn't know what to do or what to say to people, so he had been avoiding mostly everyone as he waited for Rick's return and then he could be the one to explain his long absence to the others.

Minutes later three trucks came into view that were headed towards the prison entry gates. Two of them he did not recognize but the other he knew was theirs and could make out what looked to be the outline of Rick in the driver's side. Relieve washed over him as he ran back down to the gates to open them back up before walkers made their way over to the vehicles. Momentarily he thought that could be a bad idea. What if it was some kind of trap and Rick had been forced to drive here?

That wouldn't happen. Like Daryl, Rick would not risk the safety of the group. He would die before he led bad intentioned people back here.

Daryl did not get a good look inside of the trucks as they drove past him before he secured the gates again. All he could tell was that there were a number of people in each vehicle. He guessed they must have been people that Rick saved from Woodbury, making what the kid said about the town to be true.

All three trucks pulled up to the prison courtyard and parked near the side of the prison. Others from inside the prison filtered out fully alert and went towards the trucks, looking to each other for answers. All the doors opened and people that he didn't know got out and looked around dubiously, keeping close of one another before the people of the prison walked up to them with smiling faces.

Rick walked over to Daryl as he made his way back up to where all the commotion was. He saw that Rick had a lot of blood on his clothes and some spots on his face, the same as most of the new people. It looked like they had all been through the wringer.

"It was a mess there," Rick disclosed in a low voice as he approached, stopping in his tracks when he was in front of Daryl. "No one seems to really know what happened. They all say it happened too fast. They were all in the town square and The Gov—Phillip is his real name. He came out waving a gun around saying he let in biters and they were all gonna suffer. Lost his mind and then put a gun to his head. A lot of people were dead when I got there. Walkers were all over the place." Rick ran his fingers through his hair and gestured to the people who were being greeted by the prison group. "They're gonna stay here. With us."

That was certainly a change from his previous decision. "Thought you didn't want any outsiders here?"

"I changed my mind," Rick urged. "They need to be here and we can use the help. They're good people. Young kids, mothers…they wouldn't make it on their own."

Rick pulled him aside and walked away from the rest of the people so no one could be in hearing distance of them. He let out a deep sigh before he continued. Obvious signs of grief were played out across his face. "There's something else...Andrea's dead."

The words didn't quite sink in.

Another one of their own was dead.

"I didn't believe it at first, that she was so close to us this whole time. She was dead when I got there. I don't know how that happened. Had to get three walkers away from her. I almost didn't see that it was her." Rick turned his attention to the truck that he drove back and weakly pointed over to it. "I brought her body back. It was a last minute decision but I thought she deserved to be buried with the people she knew and buried by the people who loved her. I couldn't leave her there like that."

Daryl slowly nodded to what Rick had said. "I'll get a shovel," he gloomily offered.

Another grave.

Another death.

Another person none of them would see again.

—

Daryl saw Beth approaching through the tall grass from the distance when he was about done digging the new grave, one next to the others.

"Everyone knows," she relayed to him once she was by the grave, standing at the bottom. It took her a minute to begin again because she became aware of the body wrapped in a blanket that was by the grave. "They'll be on their way out soon, they're gettin' ready. Everyone is pretty torn up about it. The people from Woodbury really cared for Andrea, as much as we did."

Daryl drove the shovel into the ground harder and chucked the dirt to the side. "You doin' okay?"

Beth hesitated before her answered. "I'm not sure."

Daryl noticed how she had been holding onto her wrist with her other hand the entire time she had been talking to him. It clicked in his head as to why—it was because of her suicide attempt back at the farm. She realized he had been watching her and brought her hand up to rub her thumb against the light pink line in her skin. He wondered what it was like to have a scar there, visible to anyone's eyes and have it be a reminder of what happened and have people question how she got it. At least his scars were not visible as long as his clothes were on. He kept those carefully hidden away.

"I was so stupid then, so foolish. I was weak," she spit out while staring into the bottom of the grave, her hand still tracing the scar on her wrist. "Andrea made me realize I wanted to live though. She helped me more than she realized."

Daryl dropped his gaze to his boots and stopped digging. He remembered how he hadn't really liked Andrea when he first met her. Actually, he didn't really like anyone. But over time he didn't mind having her around and thought she was a strong person after she got over her suicidal ideations. He had thought that was pathetic of her, to give up like that.

Then when Beth had done the same thing back at the farm he couldn't understand why at first. Most of her loving family was still there even though the hope of a cure had been washed away. Now he understood a bit better, not by much but it was something. He could understand the being traumatized by the barn incident part after placing himself in her shoes. He wasn't going to ask her about it though. Past memories are never easy to relive when they involve pain. Daryl knew all too well about that.

"I'm glad you didn't go through with it." The words came out of his mouth before he could think about them.

Beth gave him a grateful smile. "Me too."

Daryl shoveled a few more times until the grave was finished. He wiped away the sweat that was clinging to his forehead from being out in the heat and high humidity for so long digging up the soil. For the end of summer, the weather was sure being fickle. His hair felt damp against his skin and he didn't make any attempt to mess with it other than get it out of his eyes. He caught Beth in a stare, which forced him to do a double take. He saw that she became flustered as she averted her eyes.

"Everyone should be on their way out in a minute," Beth said, turning back to him. She grabbed the bag that was on her shoulder to open it and she took out some tall white flowers that grew around the courtyard and kept them in her hands. "I collected some flowers for her. Andrea once told me she liked the daisies that grew around the farm. I thought that these are similar enough."

"Nice of you," he commented. Beth always did think of the little things.

She fell silent after that. When he examined her standing there for a moment, he saw the sorrow in her angelic features. It was the first time he wished that he was one of those people who could easily comfort others when they were distressed—like Beth could do. He was in no way, shape, or form that kind of person.

"Is she…recognizable?"

"I didn't look. Couldn't."

When Rick had pulled the truck up to the graves and opened the trunk, Daryl saw that he had wrapped Andrea's body in a blanket. He had been grateful for that. Blood had seeped though and Daryl knew she must have had multiple wounds, maybe even body parts missing. He didn't want to think about it or see it. He kept every bit of the body covered when Rick helped him move her beside where her grave was going to be.

"I don't blame you for not looking."

Daryl stuck the shovel into the pile of dirt that was next to the open grave. He looked at Andrea's body that was on the ground next to the grave for a minute before he stepped out of the grave to get her and put her into her final resting place.

"I'll help," Beth generously offered, moving to the lower portion of the body.

No. He didn't want her to have to help move Andrea's body into the grave. He needed to spare her of that memory. It was bad enough that she had to see Andrea wrapped up like this.

"I've got it." Beth didn't listen and began to reach for Andrea's feet to help her into the grave. "Beth, I got it." He said it more sternly so she understood.

Her eyes snapped up to his as she retracted herself upward and took a step back, arms falling back to her side. He saw the pain in her eyes, the sadness. He wondered if he showed the same thing to her. He could normally mask his emotions pretty well but today was different. Just like when they gave Lori a grave, Daryl couldn't hide his emotions as good as he usually could. A death of one of their own affected him in a way that could not be described. Everyone grieved, then and now, including him.

It was a loss for them all. Even the people of Woodbury knew Andrea and were upset by the death of their friend.

Movement by the prison signaled that the others were on their way over and he needed to get a layer of dirt on top of her before they managed to get all the way over to the gravesite. He worked swiftly to get her covered once he got Andrea's body in the grave as gently as possible.

Beth stayed with him the whole time without saying another word. She didn't need to. Having her there was good enough for him.

—

Daryl and Beth were the last ones to leave the grave. They were walking back up to the prison when Daryl realized that he didn't want to go back inside just yet. The majority of people from Woodbury at the makeshift funeral had been crying their eyes out and continued to sob on their way back into the prison. It sounded bad but he didn't want to be around that. It was too much. He didn't know how to act around people who were crying, let alone people that he didn't know.

"Michonne said you wanted to learn how to use a gun better," Daryl started with. He needed a distraction from all this, an excuse to stay busy. Staying busy was his way to dealing with things. "You doin' anything now?"

"Nope."

Daryl strayed from the path they were on and started to walk over to where they kept a stash of some of the guns. "Good. Follow me."

Once they were over there, Daryl picked out an assault rifle that he was familiar with using. He first made sure to unload the ammo out of it so that the gun wouldn't go off by accident. Noise equated to more walkers. Since there was no danger and this was for practice, there was no real need to fire even if Daryl knew that Beth's aim would benefit from it. Also, no one else knew that they were doing this now so he thought startling everyone with a shot would not be the best idea, especially considering the circumstances.

The sun was beginning to set in the west so he suggested they move over to the far side of the prison, away from the noise of the walkers who were grouping along the fences, and where there would be the most light.

On there way over he could hear that Beth's breathing became shaky and it caused him to stop and turn around. Beth's eyes were watery and she was desperately trying to blink the impending tears away. She brought the back of her hand up to her eyes and rubbed them while she turned to the side to shield herself from him. "I'm fine. Really. I think I'm crying out of guilt for not doing it during the funeral," Beth said as she finished wiping her eyes. "And here I thought that I was all out of tears. I haven't cried in so long."

"It's okay to be upset," he responded, though it's the exact opposite of what he had been telling himself for as long as he can remember. "You sure you're alright?"

Beth let out a breath and gave him a reassuring smile. "Yes."

Her tears stopped and her eyes adjusted back to their normal lighter blue color. It didn't go unnoticed by Daryl that he would not have minded her crying in front of him and letting out the sadness, unlike how he felt with the others in the prison crying.

They continued walking over until Daryl was satisfied with the spot he had picked out in the wide open space. He handed the assault rifle over to Beth, who was unsure of where to place her hands at first before figuring it out on her own.

"Show me how you would aim."

Beth gave him a partially panicked look before holding up the assault rifle at a nonexistent target. He checked her stance and she had that perfectly. The rest needed a little work.

"Now lift your arm in the back up higher," he coaxed.

She did what he told her. "Like this?"

Before he knew it, he stepped closer so that his chest was inches from her back and their bodies were almost touching. Daryl's hand reached out and grabbed onto her elbow to pull it back down into a better position because she had lifted it too high. He put his other hand on the front of the rifle to line it up straighter. "Like that."

He lingered a little too long without recognizing it. Beth turned her head back towards him while she kept the rest of her body in place, the gun still aiming and Daryl's hands still on her elbow and on the side of the rifle right by where her hand was holding it up. A few strands of her ponytail brushed against his face as she turned her head, causing him to catch the smell of her sweet scented shampoo. Daryl felt his heart rate pick up automatically. He dropped his head along with his arms and took a large step back while clearing his throat. He bunched the hand that had been on Beth's elbow into a fist before letting it go.

_Come on, Daryl, learn some personal space._

"So this is right?"

Daryl took another look at the way she held the firearm. "Yeah. Then all you gotta do is find your target. Watch it closely and don't second guess if you have the shot or not. Most likely you do so don't be hesitatin' or it could cost you your life. Then you pull the trigger. Make sure when you move it from side to side you keep it straight. Don't lose sight of what you're aimin' at. It sounds easy but puttin' it into practice is harder."

Beth pulled the rifle away from her and looked at it for a second before returning her gaze to Daryl. "Thanks for showing me."

"Yeah, well, hopefully you don't ever gotta use one."

"One can hope. So are we done then?" From the sound of it she seemed disappointed.

"I'm not done with you yet," he reassured her, talking the rifle she was holding back into his arms. Honestly, they could have been done. In his opinion, most guns work the same way. It didn't look like Beth was in need of a lot of training with this but it was an easy excuse for him to be around her and to do something else other than fence duty. "We'll practice more tomorrow. I'll show you all the different guns. Some of them can be tricky to handle."

Daryl placed a hand onto her arm for a brief second to indicate that they should start walking back inside, which they did.

"Gun boot camp will Daryl Dixon. Sounds...exciting."

"Really? It doesn't sound like a nightmare?"

Beth laughed. "You don't see me runnin' for the hills, do you?"

"Let's not talk about hills," he grumbled as the memories replayed in his head. There was no need to relive the embarrassment. He had already accidentally mentioned to Beth that it had happened a second time, making her the only other person who knew.

"Oh, right. I forgot about that. Bad choice of words," she giggled. It was nice to see her happy after she had been upset following the funeral. Her being happy somehow transferred the happiness over to him and raised his mood. "You know I bet you can't beat Michonne out though. She was a great teacher. Want me to show you what she taught me?"

The perfect opportunity for him to tease her. "No need for that. I don't want you to hurt yourself."

Beth's jaw dropped and she moved so that she placed herself in front of him with her hands on her hips, blocking him from moving any further. It reminded him of how Merle would say that every time a woman put her hands on her hips, that meant the guy was in some deep shit. Daryl tried really hard to hold a smile back but he was failing miserably at that. "Hey! I'm really good! Michonne told me herself that I am. You best be nice to me or I might just _accidentally _shoot you tomorrow," she teased back.

"You wouldn't do that," he told her confidently. "Beth Greene wouldn't want to hurt anyone. You'd feel too guilty."

"I've killed walkers," she defended. "I don't feel guilty about that. I did at first but not anymore."

"Walkers don't count. They ain't people no more. Hurting livin' people on purpose and meaning it is a whole other story. That's why I know you ain't gonna shoot me."

Beth turned back around and started walking next to him with a devilish grin on her face. He figured he probably deserved whatever was coming his way. "You're right! I wouldn't need to shoot you, Daryl. As history shows, all I would need to do is send you off in the direction of a hill and you'll do the damage to yourself without my assistance." Beth nudged his shoulder as they walked. "What do ya think? Third time's the charm falling down a hill enough to make you a bit nicer?"

He's kind of taken aback by how brazen she was.

"Oh. _Ouch_. That's a low blow there, Greene." For a moment he thought he felt a twinge of pain where he had received scars from those to falls. Most likely it was all in his head. He then added, "It's not my fault. I have bad luck with them or somethin'."

"You started it," she pointed out the truth. "But I promise I won't talk about...the 'h' word anymore."

Since when did they start bickering like an old married couple? However, he is impressed by her fearlessness when it came to going back and forth with him, not afraid to say anything. It was yet another thing to add to the list of things he liked about her—the list that somehow got so long that it was turning into a book.

This girl was going to drive him crazy.

He might just not mind that.

_**A/N: I just got done taking one of the hardest exams and now I won't know my grade until Monday. Fantastic, right? My ever helpful professor refuses to use my college's online system to post grades. Why you might ask? That's a good question since he never explained when we asked him. So I came straight home to edit this and I am ever hopeful that my brain is still working after that exam and this ended up being an interesting chapter with few grammatical errors (end of rant). :)  
**_

_**As always, thank you for reading, reviewing, following, and adding this story to your favorites!**_


	7. Chapter 7

More people began to filter in and the numbers at the prison rose. Daryl and Rick brought a bunch of people in who they had found on the streets or were hiding out in places they made runs to. Getting used to these new people was going to take some time. They were still adjusting to the prison life so for the most part they were leaving Daryl alone, not pestering him with too many personal questions. He thought it was because no one wanted to know about each other's stories anymore.

They were all the same, after all. Backstories that were plagued with death, loss, and pain.

Daryl made his way into the kitchen area with the smell of dinner wafting through the air. Beth had Judith in her arms when Daryl spotted her in the cafeteria. There were a number of people in there eating their dinner, talking with one another and intermingling with the original prison group members.

Daryl glanced over at Beth again. From the look of it, Beth had not eaten yet, making sure that Judith was fed first. The girl didn't know how to take a break.

Daryl crossed the length of the cafeteria and picked up a two bowls of whatever was being served for dinner. It looked like it was pasta with mixed vegetables, thanks to the garden that was growing outside from Hershel and Rick's hard work. Carol had been raving about her allegedly famous pasta sauce all week so he hoped it was going to live up to all the hype.

He weaved through the tables to the other side of the room where Beth was. She watched him walk over with a grin once she noticed that he was coming towards her with dinner.

"You need to eat," he told her, stretching out his arm to hand over the bowl he had gotten for her.

She gratefully accepted it. "I know, I know."

Patrick then slowly approached them with one hand attached onto his opposite arm, his shoulders caved inward, and this dorky looking expression on his face. He had to have been nervous about coming over to them or he was about to tell them he was going to pass out. From the look on his face, either one was plausible.

"You know, she's a beautiful little girl you got there," Patrick said to Beth while he smiled at Judith, who then stared back at Patrick with bewildered eyes.

Patrick was new here, only a few days had he been at the prison. As far as he knew, Patrick had never spoken to Beth.

"She is, isn't she?" Beth propped Judith up and turned her more towards Patrick.

"It's strange though," Patrick commented as he shook his head. He looked at both Beth and Daryl while he adjusted his glasses with one finger. "She doesn't look like either of you."

It was an innocent comment, one that made the entire room go dead silent. Daryl stopped chewing on the mouth full of food he had been wolfing down. He felt the eyes on him. Daryl moved his own eyes around the room without moving his head. All eyes were on him, waiting for a response. Were all these newer people thinking that Judith was Beth's and his? He doesn't ever remember anyone saying who Judith belonged to; all there had been was a massive influx of how gorgeous lil' ass-kicker was.

"Oh-h, um, she's not…ours. Or mine. Not Daryl's either. Judith is Rick's daughter," Beth corrected him, looking over at Daryl for a second before returning her eyes back to Patrick.

"Oh shit," Patrick cursed with his face going pale white. It shocked Daryl because Patrick didn't seem like the kind of guy who would curse out in the open. He immediately covered his mouth once he came to realize that there were little children in the room. "Sorry! I didn't-I didn't mean…I'm, uh, gonna go over there—" He motioned over to the door that was wide open—"I think I heard someone call my name."

Daryl had never seen a man run out of a room as fast as Patrick did, stumbling and everything. Looked like a damn chicken with his head cut off. But he was appreciative that Patrick had provided a new distraction and everyone turned their attention to him as he darted out of the room instead of keeping their eyes on Beth and him.

Beth adjusted Judith in her arms so she could take her fork and shovel in a huge bite of pasta. He felt like he stood there awkwardly, rendered speechless in what to say next. What the hell could he say now after that just happened? Daryl cleared his throat because the silence was deafening. He didn't see a way to defuse the uncomfortable tension in the air, and he was damn well sure that he was the only one in the room who felt it.

"Wait, what?" Daryl's not sure of the girl's name who said it. Was it Lisa? No, it must be Lizzie. She was one of the newest additions to the prison. "I thought they were together," she whispered to her little sister who was sitting next to her enjoying her dinner.

He's sure that one's name is Mika. All she did was shrug her shoulders and went back to eating.

Everyone went back to their conversations and with a quick glance over at Beth, it looked like she had remained unaffected by the incident with Patrick. She must not have heard what Lizzie had said; only Daryl had caught it. He would have thought that Beth would be too weirded out to even stand next to him after the remark Patrick had made. Apparently being mistaken for Judith's mother and him being the father did not bother her at all.

Should it?

He couldn't answer that question. He guessed he was the only one of the two who felt like he could bury his head into the fucking wall to get away.

—

Zach joined Daryl at the last minute after dinner to sweep the perimeter. This was something that Daryl would usually do by himself with only his crossbow with him, and was used to it being that way. He was not sure if he liked having another person there with him, actively trying to make small talk with him. Yes, even in the apocalypse it was still unbearable to Daryl. Still something that he dreaded as if it were some kind of disease. It wasn't easy for him to talk to people about himself, to open up when people were trying to get him to. He avoided that at all costs. Except with Beth, of course. Talking to her was simple. It came naturally. With anyone else it felt more forced and uncomfortable.

The sun was down and there was barely enough light to see where they were walking once Daryl and Zach started the perimeter sweep. It wouldn't have minded Daryl because he was used to hunting and tracking during nighttime. He could swear that he had some sort of night vision because he could easily maneuver in the darkness; a skill that he acquired after so many years of hunting in the woods. Zach, however, had been tripping over his own feet the second they stepped outside so Daryl went back in and got a flashlight for him. Ridiculous, he knew. But Zach was insistent on coming with him even if the threat of falling on his face was high.

Zach, for the most part, talked about random pieces of information: the weather, the walkers, and how he thought Carol and Beth made better dinners than his mother ever did. Daryl valued the humor that Zach managed to work into what he talked about. Sometimes he couldn't tell if Zach was joking or not, but that didn't really matter all that much.

He liked Zach up until the point where he started asking questions halfway through the sweep about what Daryl did in the past. Career? No. Daryl wasn't up for that kind of conversation. What was he supposed to say? Guess what, Zach, I didn't do shit because my brother was an asshole who I would listen to.

Yeah, that would go over real well. It's a good thing that Daryl shut him down before he continued guessing at what he did when Daryl refused to respond. Zach would never be able to correctly guess. It was a waste of time on his part and Daryl's.

"I liked you better when you weren't talkin'," he stated, moving his crossbow into his other hand.

"Not the first time I've heard that," Zach replied.

"I don't even wanna know who told you that before."

Zach sighed. "I'll tell you anyways. College girls, that's who."

There was a loud rustling around sound that came from beyond the fences and it captured both of their attention since it came from out of the blue, Zach being more startled by it than Daryl. The boy bumped into him as he retracted backwards away from the fence.

Zach quickly moved his flashlight from in front of him and shone the light through the metal fence over towards where the noise was coming from. "I don't see anything. What do you think is out there?"

Daryl walked closer to the fence and tried to listen more closely to the sound. Through all his hunting and tracking, he picked up on a few things. He had learned how to identify many aspects including sounds—what they meant, how large an animal was, how many there were, what direction it was moving in.

"Whatever it is, it's heavy. Reckon around forty pounds."

Zach continued to manipulate the light through the fence without any luck of spotting what was making the noise. "Maybe it's a raccoon."

Daryl turned away from the fence and threw Zach an 'are you fucking serious' kind of look. "A forty pound raccoon? The hell has it been eatin'?

Zach shrugged and tried to look around some more. "I went to New York City with my buddies once and I saw a rat the size of a house cat go down the street and into a storm drain. Scary shit. I wouldn't doubt anything."

"It ain't a threat. Probably some kind of animal. Walkers will scare it off," Daryl told Zach and motioned for them to continue walking the perimeter. There was no need to bother with what was beyond the fence.

"You know what's really funny?" Zach asked, looking over to Daryl. He didn't respond. All he wanted to do was get the sweep done with and go back inside. "I spent all that money on tuition, books, spent all that time studying only to end up without a degree and on the run from dead people. I should spent my time doing better things. You know, like going to concerts with friends and going to parties and doing dumb stuff that I'd regret later. Or telling that girl in my history class that she was smoking hot...and the girl in my human diversity class...and the one in Algebra."

Daryl snorted. Typical college boy this one was.

"I'm serious! If you could go back and get a do over, isn't there something you would have liked to do before? Something that you'd do in another way. Don't you think you'd live your life differently if you knew all this was going to happen before it did?"

Of course he would do things differently if he had the choice to go back. That was not the case though, so why bother to think it over?

"We're all different now," Daryl seriously told him. "We've all done things. Seen things. People aren't the same as they used to be. Never be the same again. No one could go back and start their life again, not their old life."

And wasn't that the truth.

Everyone was changed by this indefinitely. No one was the same person that they were a year ago, or two years ago, or even longer. No one was the same as they were yesterday. They were constantly changing, and not exactly for the better most of the time. The idea of having to re-enter society was more frightening than being surrounded by a herd of walkers with no escape. A normal society was where no one currently alive on the planet could function without going insane.

What did Zach expect him to say? That he could pick his life right back up where he left it and make some changes? Sure, if he could the first thing he would do would be to tell his brother off. After that, then what? It's not like he had a lot of options in his old life. He was a dumbass no good redneck with a combative attitude that couldn't care less about anything, who followed his brother's beck and call. He didn't want to even consider being the old him again.

"I guess that's true. We're all screwed up now."

Zach is quiet for a minute but Daryl can sense that there is something else that he wanted to say. "What is it?"

"I'm just…I'm thinking about my old life. Thinking about my sister," he admitted in a whisper-like voice. "I went out of state to school and never got to go back home when the outbreak happened. A group from school took off after the dead started walking around and I went with them without thinking. I don't know if my sister is alive or not. She's only two years younger than me. I think she could handle herself. The not knowing part is the worst. Keeps me up at night. I'm a horrible older brother. I feel like shit for not going back for her." Zach's voice turned unsteady. "I could have. I didn't. I chose not to and now I get to live with that."

Daryl didn't know how to respond. All along this guy had been consumed with guilt for not finding his sister, for not going back for her. Daryl had an idea of how that felt. Apart from the anger he felt when he learned that Merle was gone from that rooftop in Atlanta, there was that monstrous feeling of guilt that built up, telling him that it was his fault that Merle was gone.

The feeling went away over time and Daryl no longer blamed himself for that. He _had _gone after Merle and tried to find him. He came to realize that it was Merle's own fault that he was left there in the first place. There had been no point in letting that get to him.

Zach made a sound that sounded like half of a sigh and half of a laugh. "Sorry. I don't mean to dump my problems on you."

"S'fine. You needed to get it off your chest. I get that."

"I don't ever see the guilt going away. Or the thoughts of if she'd alive or…dead...or something else."

Daryl carefully chose his words. He tried to think of what Beth would say in this moment. "We've all made tough choices we ain't proud of. You never know. Maybe you'll see her again one day. Don't be makin' any assumptions 'bout what happened to her. Doesn't to anybody any good."

"Yeah," Zach smiled, thinking about the idea of that. It looked like that had brought him out of the sullen mood that talking about the guilt over his sister had put him in. "Maybe. Maybe I need to hang onto that."

Well, looked like that worked. He should do that more often, think about what Beth would say and then relay that to people. It seemed to work out really well in situations like this. He should get one of those 'What Would Jesus Do?' key chains and change it to 'What Would Beth Do?'. He almost laughed out loud at the thought. His mind went to strange places whenever he was sleep deprived. He desperately needed sleep and needed to convince himself that it was okay to take the opportunity to rest and recuperate after they were done with walking the perimeter.

As it turned out, the sweep of the prison perimeter went without a hitch. No breaches and nothing out of the ordinary. Daryl pulled out a cigarette from his back pocket and lite it. It was rare for him to have one of these, and in all actuality it should be a habit to break. He could literally hear Beth's voice in his head telling him that the cigarette was bad for him.

He could deal with that. It was better than Merle's voice. Much better.

"Hey, I've been wanting to ask you something ever since earlier today. It's stupid but I'm kind of curious."

Oh, God. Here they went again with another round of twenty questions. He was so looking forward to that. Couldn't Zach tell that he was jumping for joy at the possibility of being interrogated by an ex-college student?

Jeez, the kid needed to get some eye glasses or something before Daryl grabbed a roll of duck tape and taped Zach's mouth shut. Daryl wasn't in the mood to keep on evading inquires. He honestly doesn't even know why Zach is so interested in his life in the first place. He was the farthest thing from interesting. A rock would be more captivating than him.

Daryl breathed in and exhaled a mouth full of smoke in Zach's direction. He bitterly grumbled, "What do you wanna ask?"

"It's just one more, I swear! Then I'm done for the night."

Daryl was more than skeptical of that. One question always led to another. "Fine."

"So, you and Beth…you're not like dating or anything like that? I mean, I knew that Judith was Rick's, unlike Patrick, but I thought that maybe the two of you…"

Zach trailed off without finishing his sentence. That was not what he had been expecting Zach to ask about. Daryl gave him a quick glance before he brought the cigarette back up to his lips before he answered. "No."

Zach nodded his head, clearly liking his answer. It annoyed Daryl.

"So, is she dating anyone else?"

What? Did Zach think that Beth and him sat around and talked about their love lives during the walker apocalypse? Love lives which he is fairly certain are nonexistent for the both of them. At least he is one hundred percent sure that there was not one for him. And unless Beth had a secret boyfriend that she was hiding under her bed that no one seemed to have noticed, then she did not have anyone either.

Dating with dead people walking around trying to eat living flesh. Fucking unbelievable.

Who the fuck would have time to date when the world went to shit anyways? He's pretty damn sure that dinner and movie dates were out of the question. It was more like smash in walker heads and find survival supplies and try not to get killed kind of dates, if that word was even appropriate to use.

"You'd have to ask her," Daryl coldly responded. He didn't like where this was going.

"I just figured you would know since you two spend so much time together. Or at least that's what I've seen in the time I've been here."

He felt the need to defend himself. "Not that much time. We're all busy."

"Okay. I was just curious, is all. I mean, she's obviously beautiful. Who _wouldn't_ want to be around her? She's around my age. I get that it's dumb to think about stuff like this, given the condition of the world. You seem to know her pretty well so do you think she'd be interested? It doesn't seem like she has a lot of time but it might be worth a shot."

Daryl clenched his teeth together at that last part. The thought of Zach going after Beth made his stomach turn sour.

"M'not her spokesperson," he spat out.

"Right. I should man up and ask her myself."

A few awkward beats passed that consisted of them standing there in silence. Daryl didn't say anything more out of fear that the next thing to leave his mouth would be something that he would regret. Zach went back to gazing over at the fences with his flashlight, which annoyed him. Everything about his guy annoyed him beyond belief all of a sudden. Even his fucking breathing irritated him.

Daryl stared Zach down for a second before he left Zach standing there, not telling him where he was going off to. He figured that Zach would catch the drift that they were done with the sweep and there was no need to linger around. It's not like Daryl needed to hold Zach's hand for him to get back inside. There was nothing left to talk about; he didn't want to hear anything more anyways.

What Zach had said evoked this strange and foreign emotion for Daryl. Truthfully, it was almost embarrassing of himself that he had to deal with his. His cigarette wouldn't help at all so he chucked it onto the ground and put it out so it didn't catch any shit on fire. That's all he would need—to burn the fucking cucumbers.

_Get a grip._

Daryl tried to shove the feelings back down but he couldn't. It was too late. They boiled up and spilled over completely to the point where it was out of his control. The feeling was strong, clawing at him from the inside.

Wait a minute.

Was he _jealous_? No. No fucking way was Daryl Dixon jealous. It was not possible. Still, the feeling resonated inside of him. He decided to take it out on the walkers by the fence.

Daryl stooped down and grabbed one of the long rods that were leaned up against the prison wall and headed down to the fence where a group of walkers had gathered, their noise becoming increasingly loud as he got closer. He wasted no time getting to work. One by one, the walkers fell to the ground into a pile. He plunged the rod into each one of their heads over and over again. The action was automatic now, repeated and brutal. He put a lot of force into it, way more than was necessary. So much that the rod went entirely though the heads and out the back before it was yanked back though.

He was worked up about what Zach had asked him. He didn't want to think about why it caused him to turn angry and frustrated. As long as he kept smashing in walker's heads then he wouldn't need to think.

By the time he was done, Daryl was out of breath from not stopping. There were countless bodies littering the ground on the other side of the fence. It was so dark that he couldn't tell how many there were, and he could not remember how many times he sunk the rod into their heads.

Daryl was covered in blood, head to toe. It was everywhere. He let the bloody rod drop to the ground as he took a couple steps back away from the now quite area.

Shit.

What was wrong with him? This wasn't like him. He went on a walker killing rampage over something that Zach asked about Beth, and then something that he was implying on asking her later.

Daryl really wished he had another cigarette.


	8. Chapter 8

The rain came down steady. Daryl heard the light noise of the rain drops hitting the roof of the guard tower. It was a calming sound to him, always had been. When he was younger and he would be hunting with Merle, they would set up camp before the rain hit. Merle would go to sleep right away, pissed off that the rain had interrupted them, but Daryl never minded it. He would stay up and listen to the sound of the rain hitting the tent before drifting off.

Fall was approaching fast. Daryl felt the shift. In the last week, the air had cooled down and the weather began to turn crisp. People were beginning to get prepared for the upcoming winter season that would be there in a few months. Since the summer had been so brutally hot and humid, Daryl was expecting the winter to be milder.

He can hope, at least.

Winter would make hunting more difficult. It wasn't effortless to find animals these days; he would always get something but that was beside the point. There were more people at the prison now, which meant that they all needed to be on their A game when it came to searching for food, in the woods or out on runs.

Karen said she knew a lot about storing and drying foods so Rick enlisted her to help with the garden when she first got here. Karen and Hershel were both adamant about growing certain foods in the garden through the fall so they could have some back up dried vegetables during the long winter months. Karen had already gotten started with getting some of it to be shelf stable.

Mid-thought, Daryl heard the handle on the bottom of the guard tower latch turn so that someone could open it and enter the tower. It would be too soon for someone to be taking over for him so he hadn't a clue as to who would be coming out here in the rain.

He watched as a small hand pushed the latch open and over to rest on the ground in back of it. Beth's head popped over the now open space and she put her arms onto the guard tower floor. "There you are," she said cheerfully.

"Been lookin' for me?" He questioned in a low voice.

Beth nodded her head, grinning. "Everywhere. Of course I find you in the last place I look."

Daryl returned the smile she gave him. "You need something? Everything alright inside?"

"Everything is fine. I have some time off and I don't what to do with myself. I wrote in my journal for a while and then I decided to search high and low for you. Now I finally found you! You're a hard man to find, Daryl. Did you know that?"

"Well, what are ya waitin' for? Get up here before you fall back down," Daryl said, trying to ignore the warm feeling that he got from knowing that Beth had searched for him.

Beth climbed up the last several steps and pulled herself over the latch while she planted her feet onto the floor, closing the latch back up behind her. Daryl examined her. Beth had clearly been a victim of the rain's wrath.

The top of her hair and the ends of her ponytail were soaking wet. Her clothes were damp from the distance between the prison and the guard tower. She had to have run the distance or she would have been completely soaked otherwise. Her light colored jeans were now darker at the top, where the rain had hit. Her button down shirt that she had tied at the bottom was slightly see though and Daryl couldn't help but keep his eyes on the color contrast of her pitch black bra against her creamy toned skin.

It wasn't like it was overly obvious that her shirt was plastered against her skin and her bra. If it were anyone else, he would have ignored it entirely. Daryl tried to avert his gaze from her but his eyes stayed frozen in place, unable to look away.

He should feel guilty about that, shameful that he stared. It wasn't until Beth pulled at the shirt that it loosened up around her and hid what was underneath more easily.

Beth moved so that she was across from where Daryl was sitting against the wall. On the opposite side, she leaned down to put her hand on the floor so she could sit down as well. She let her knees bend up as she dragged her feet more towards her body. She crossed her wrist over the other so that her right hand fell on her left knee and her other hand fell onto her right knee, mirroring the exact position that Daryl was in.

"It's quiet up here. I see why you like being out here. It's a good place to think."

"That ain't always a good thing," he insisted.

"What _does _Daryl Dixon think about when he's up here all alone?"

Daryl had a moment of panic inside because the word 'you' floated around in his head. It was not a time to be honest. "Nothin' much."

What a lie that was.

"Did you know that Michonne knew Andrea?"

He looked over, confused. He had been unaware of that. Michonne had never given any indication that she knew who Andrea was before or after the funeral they had given her. "No. She never said anythin'."

"She told me yesterday when she was watchin' over Judith while I got her new clothes," Beth clarified. "She's okay. She needed some time to deal with it."

That explained the absence of Michonne around the prison lately. She had been working things out, dealing with the loss of Andrea. It made sense then. Andrea had been the friend that Michonne had left in Woodbury.

Beth looked around the guard tower even though there was not much to look at other than the lantern that sat in the corner along with the two sleeping bags on the floor with a pillow each. Overall, there was not much space to move around in. They were in close quarters, not that he's about to complain.

"I've never been up here before. It's not that bad."

Daryl cocked his head to the side. "Really?"

"Yes, really! I could be up here all day writing if I had the time." Beth pursued her lips. "I'm getting' low on room to write in my journal," she hinted.

"I'll be on the lookout for another one."

He actually already had one back in his cell that he was going to give to her. He just didn't want Beth to know that he had already picked another one up for her a while ago. It would seem like he was too eager.

"Okay, thanks." Beth shifted her position so that her legs were stretched out in front of her. "Hey, you wanna know what I was thinkin' about last night?"

"What?"

"If any of us would have met each other if the outbreak never happened. Like maybe somehow some of us were destined to meet each other no matter what."

This caught his attention. Daryl furrowed his brows at her. "You mean like fate? You believe in that sort of thing?"

Beth laughed as she shrugged one of her shoulders. "I don't know. It seems silly to believe in something like that when the world is the way it is now."

Daryl never believed in anything like fate. It seemed beyond ridiculous—things happening that were beyond his control. Bullshit. Wasn't fate supposed to be something supernatural? Yeah, that sounded like a brainless idea. Thing is, he never would have believed that the dead were walking around wanting to eat other people now so, hey, anything was possible. He wasn't about to rule something out because it sounded absurd.

"I just don't see a world where Maggie and Glenn never met, you know? That would be…tragic. They love each other so much. I guess it's pretty stupid to believe in soul mates too. I don't know if I ever believed in that until I saw Maggie and Glenn together. They're perfect for each other, in every way possible. I'm sounding sappy now, aren't I?

"Just a lil' bit," he assured her.

"Sometimes I wonder what I'd been doing right this second if the outbreak never happened. If I'd be gettin' ready to go to college or stayin' on the farm with Maggie." She pondered it for a moment, deep in thought. "It's weird to think that. It's sad, actually, to think that we wouldn't all be together. That's…heartbreaking. Everyone here is my family now. We _are _a family. The thought of us all not being here, being together—"

Beth didn't finish her sentence. Daryl soaked in her words and contemplated what she had said.

Family.

A concept that was so unfamiliar to him. Until this point, that is. It was the first time that he had ever felt like he had a family, a group of people who all cared for the well-being of each other, and would do anything to keep each other protected. Daryl never believed that he would have something like that. He often wondered if he deserved what he had now.

"I know what you mean," Daryl said to her as he thought about it more.

From the way that Beth looked at him after he said that, Daryl could tell that she understood what he had meant by the statement. Their short conversation from the kitchen pantry from a long time ago about when he was younger must have come to her mind, that brief glimpse that he had given her into his childhood and what is had been like for him. Maybe one day he would tell her the whole story.

"It would seem so weird to not know anyone here. To have never met Rick or Michonne or Carol. Or you! I can't forget you on the list of people that I might not have ever met if it weren't for the outbreak." Beth pouted and battered her eyelashes at him. "That's even more tragic."

Daryl rolled his eyes at her and kept his eyes on the ceiling. "You'd probably be better off not knowin' me."

"What?" She sounded like Daryl had offended her. "Don't say that! Not one bit of it is true. Take it back."

Daryl glimpsed back over to her. He hadn't expected such a reaction from her. Beth stared at him wide-eyed, her light blue eyes searching his intensely as she waited for him to say the words she had told him to speak.

After a minute of that, he mumbled, "I take it back."

"Good." Beth lifted her chin and smiled, relieved that he had caved. "I choose to believe I would have met you no matter what. We live in the same state. It was bound to happen as some point or another. I'd be glad I met you in any way it happened."

Beth placed her head back onto the wall and closed her eyes, her head sliding a bit to the side. The quiet resumed between them, the only sound coming from the increasingly heavier rain that came down and battered onto the roof of the guard tower.

Daryl took the opportunity to watch Beth. What she had said before came back to his mind, that she had time off and came looking for him. It seemed to be a pattern, and he had not connected the dots before. She barely had any time to do what she wanted to, like the rest of them, and when she got time off Beth came and spent her valuable time with him.

With him.

Why? Why on Earth would she _want _to do that?

Daryl sure wouldn't want to spend time with him if he were another person hanging around the prison. In fact, he would be the last person on the planet he would expect Beth Greene to want to be around in her spare time. All to just come and chat with him? He couldn't put the puzzle pieces together with that one. It seemed like there was something missing from that equation which Daryl was not aware of.

His thoughts drifted elsewhere, into a territory he didn't want to think about again.

He tried to muster up the courage to ask her about Zach. A few days had gone by since Zach had proclaimed that he was interested in Beth. That still bothered him in a way he could not explain. He had theorized that maybe he had been tired that night and that's why he had been so annoyed by it.

Nope. He was dead wrong.

The feeling stayed with him. The curiosity surrounding it began to eat away at his soul, or so it seemed. Beth hadn't said anything to him and Zach had not been around in the last few days, which led him to be anxious along with a side of nervousness about what could possibly be going on. Such an infuriating feeling that was.

"You see Zach recently?"

That was a terrible start. Closed-ended questions could give him nothing other than one worded response. Luckily for him, Beth liked to talk and give explanations so he would get more than one word reply. That's how he would be able to tell if there was something to hide, if she kept her answer short and evaded giving any details. That's how he avoided answering question he didn't want to. He assumed that most people did the same.

"Yeah, he came by the other day when I was putting Judith down for a nap. He's funny. I think he was tryin' to see if I liked him or something. He acted really flirty. I don't know. It was hard to tell. I sent him in a different direction though."

She brushed it off like it was nothing. He considered that to be a good sign. It relieved him.

He knew why now, after much consideration in the past few days. He knew why the thought of Zach and Beth together ticked him off, made him feel like he could punch a hole into a wall. He won't admit it to himself entirely, no, not yet. He's convinced that the universe was screwing with him, pushing these feelings onto him on purpose to watch him squirm and try to avoid them.

"Why do you ask?"

Her question caught him off guard. He hadn't thought of an alternate plausible cause as to why he wanted to know. He sure isn't going to tell her the real reason as to why he was wondering.

"No reason," he decided to go with.

Beth eyed him suspiciously. He could have sworn that the corners of her mouth turned up before her pushed her lips together and turned her head in the other direction to look out the window.

The rain started to come down sideways and pummeled against the windows of the guard tower. There was little visibility through the rain that came down. It came down so heavy and so fast that it turned a more white color.

"Looks like I'm not going anywhere soon," Beth gathered while she looked out the windows with her head rested up against the wall.

He was pleased that the rain had picked up; it gave him more time with Beth. More time for him to spiral further down into a mess he could not get himself out of even if he wanted to.

_**A/N: Thanks for reading! I wanted to get this updated before I send my laptop in for repair tomorrow morning. What am I supposed to do without it until Monday?  
**_

_**Thank you to all my lovely reviewers and to all my wonderful guest reviewers. Everyone has the nicest things to say and it brightens my day! **_


	9. Chapter 9

It had been early morning and Daryl couldn't sleep anymore. He had tossed and turned all through the night so he stopped waiting to fall asleep again. No one was awake yet, except for whoever was on watch, and he is certain that was Rick. It resulted in him studying the arrows that he had by this bed, even though he had looked at them time and time again. There was nothing new about them. They were the same old arrows that had been using for some time now. It reminded him that he should be on the lookout for some backup ones.

When he held one of the arrows up into the light that came through the windows from the hall, he saw that Beth stood in the cell entry way. He hadn't heard her come down the hallway like he usually would, which was odd for him. He normally heard everything.

Beth came into the cell after checking back down the row of cells that she had come from. She crossed the room and bended down so she could have her knees on the floor right by his bed. She faintly ducked her head underneath to his level so she could speak quietly.

"I need your help," she whispered.

The trace of worry on her face strongly alarmed him. Daryl sat up and swung his legs around his bed so they were planted on the floor. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's _wrong_ but I need to get something. From somewhere outside of the prison."

"What do you need?"

Beth shifted and rested her hands onto the edge of the bed, looking up at him. "I can't tell you. I promised someone that I wouldn't. But it's really important. Urgent, actually. Please? I hate to put this on you but you're the only one I can think of that can help and would be willing to help."

He felt more than inclined to help her. It was Beth.

"I'll find Rick and tell him."

Daryl got up off his bed and snatched up his crossbow in one fluid motion, causing Beth to rush to his side before he could take another step.

"No one can know," Beth urged, grabbing onto his arm so that it stopped him from moving.

Daryl sighed because he was caught between a rock and a hard place. "I gotta tell Rick," he explained, hoping that she would understand. "Trust me."

Beth nodded after a moment of consideration and let her hand go so Daryl could get by and go find Rick. "Okay. Tell him it's important."

"Get ready to go. Meet me outside in five minutes."

Daryl's head swirled with ideas of what Beth could possibly need so badly as he stepped down multiple hallways and turned the corner so he could get outside. He hoped that he was correct about Rick being the one to be on watch.

He figured the most likely place for Rick to be this early would be near the garden, which had turned into one of his most treasured accomplishments. He spent a good chunk of his time out there. It seemed to almost border on the line of some kind of obsession but no one was going to say anything. They might have to eventually, but not today.

Once he was outside in the dewy morning air, Daryl saw that he had been right and the garden was exactly where he found Rick.

"Need to talk to ya," Daryl said, notifying Rick of his presence.

Rick moved out from the garden to converse with Daryl. "Thought I was the only one awake at this hour. What is it?"

Daryl pleaded his case. "I need to go on a run. Beth needs somethin' but she can't say what so she has to come with me. Somethin' about a promise to someone. I need you to trust me on this. She wouldn't have asked if it wasn't important."

The words came out so fast that even Daryl is shocked by the speed in which they came out of his own mouth. Rick gave him this look like he was highly unsure about this.

"You sure her goin' out there is safe?"

"She can handle herself," Daryl affirmed. He didn't have any doubt about that. He would be there by her side if anything were to happen so he isn't too concerned about it. "And she's with me. What could go wrong?"

He shouldn't have said that last part. Daryl is in no way superstitious but he wished there was some wood to knock on. No need to tempt fate.

Rick looked undecided in the matter until the door of the prison opened. They both turned and saw Beth standing there looking over at them, waiting to go. Rick threw his hand into his hair to run his fingers through it and looked down to the ground before he glanced back up. "Alright, alright. I'll get the gate for you."

Both Rick and Daryl departed from the place they stood at. Daryl walked past Beth who kept close once he gave her a nod to indicate that they got the green light from Rick.

Daryl swiped the set of keys that were tucked into a container on a nearby table. He followed the prison wall down to where his motorcycle was resting in its place. After a quick assessment, he kicked the bike stand out from underneath and pulled the bike upwards so that it was center. He threw his leg over while he kept the bike straight and put the key into the ignition, the bike roaring to life.

"We're taking that?"

"No, I'm just gonna ride around the block and come back for ya," he sarcastically joked.

Beth let out a half-laugh. "Right. I guess that was a dumb question."

Daryl nodded back to the seat that was awaiting her. "Hop on."

Beth hesitated before she moved towards the bike. She swung her leg over and got situated on the back of the bike, moving around a lot to get comfortable.

"Hold on,' he instructed.

Beth immediately wrapped her arms around his waist, hanging on tight. She inched closer to him so that her knees where bent inwards, resting against his hips and upper thighs. He could feel how she pressed her legs into him and how her grasp around his waist tightened as he hit the gas and moved them forward down the path to the gate.

"Have I mentioned that I've never been on a motorcycle before?"

"Kinda figured that by the way you're tryin' to suffocate me by squeezing me like a snake tryin' to kill its prey," he said, turning his head to that she could hear him.

Beth loosened her grip on his waist. "Oops. Sorry. I didn't realize."

Rick got the first gate open for them and Daryl slowly drove through, placing his feet on the ground to hold up the bike until Rick opened the second one. "Be careful out there," he said to Daryl, keeping his words slow to emphasize the importance.

"Will do."

Daryl started to drive the bike down the dirt path so that they were not swarmed by any walkers once they got past the second gate. The noise of the engine had alerted all of them that something yummy was moving around. They had all turned towards Daryl and Beth, moving in their direction despite not being fast enough to catch up.

"You never told me where we needed to go."

"Hmmm. Something like a Walgreens type of store. Something similar to that," Beth shouted over the sound of the loud engine.

That didn't get him any close to an answer. He decided that he would mind his own business for the time being and get Beth to where she needed to go without pressing her to give up clues.

An internal map came up in his mind and he located where the nearest spot would be that matched her description. "I know a place."

Daryl pushed down on the gas pedal and they sped off down the path that was surrounded by trees. There were a number of walkers that were on the sides of the road who were heading in the direction of the prison that turned their attention to them as they went by. There were none of them that were directly in the path that they were taking to get to a paved road, so there was no need for Daryl to swerve out of the way to avoid any.

Once he got onto the paved road that would led them to their destination, there were less walkers roaming around. There were some way off in the distance, some that were hanging out by the tree line, but none that were close. It relaxed him to know that there was no immediate danger lurking close to them.

When the threat of the walkers had diminished, Daryl instantaneously became very aware of how Beth was hanging onto him, for what seemed like dear life.

_Focus on the road. Focus on the road._

There was no such luck.

Once again, the world liked to fuck around with him.

The warmth that came off of Beth made it hard for him to listen to himself and focus on the road ahead. As he had picked up speed, Beth had pressed her chest into his back and had inched up the furthest that she possibly could. Her entire torso was lined up perfectly against his back. He could even feel the breaths that she inhaled and exhaled, the movements of her chest as it rose and fell.

She had resumed tightening her grasp around his waist, her hands moving so they were just under his ribs, pressing firmly against his abdominal muscles. It felt like her palms were burning through his shirt. Beth's head was rested to the side and against his back, occasionally moving it from side to side to look around.

The worst and best part was that her thighs were clenched around either side of his hips, pushing into him. He tried not to think about it, tried not to allow himself to even let his thoughts go anywhere near the place they wanted to so desperately go. The complication was that he literally could not stop it; his body wouldn't let him. It felt like every nerve in his body was standing on edge the more Beth innocently pressed against him.

He'd be lying if he said he didn't like how it felt.

He was going to hell for this. No doubt about it.

Daryl gripped the handles of the motorcycle so hard that the white of his knuckles showed. Why did he take the motorcycle in the first place? What a bad idea that had turned into. Now he would have to deal with the dirty thoughts and the images that came to mind from having Beth pressed up against him the way she was. Maybe it was punishment.

_Get it together._

The rest of the ride went by in the same way, which consisted of Daryl shouting at himself internally about how he should not be feeling the way he did about Beth's body pressed into his.

Damn it. She was eighteen. _Eighteen._ As in still a fucking teenager.

_She's too young. Stop thinking those things._

No matter how many times he tried to eradicate the thoughts, they stayed put, torturing him until they pulled into a vacant lot with a store that had sold multiple types of merchandise before the world belonged to the walkers. As far as he could tell, the place was a ghost town.

"Will this do?"

"It should," Beth confirmed.

He put the bike in park and put his feet down onto the ground to support the bike while he let Beth swing her leg back over and get off, pulling her backpack strap back over her shoulder. He tried not to miss the feeling of her, but he did. There was no escape from that. The physical contact was something that he wanted back again, even though his head told him that he shouldn't want that, shouldn't want to have Beth against him. He could only imagine what skin on skin contact would feel like.

Heavenly, he chose to believe.

He scratched his head and attempted to focus his attention elsewhere.

Daryl turned off the engine and grabbed his crossbow off the back of the bike. He realized that Beth was weaponless so he reached down and took out the large hunting knife that he had on him. "Just in case," he said, handing it over to Beth. "You remember how to use it?"

Beth glanced down at the knife that was now in her hand. "You showed a few days ago, Daryl. How could I forget?"

"Wanted to make sure before we go in there," he murmured.

They crossed the parking lot towards the store. Daryl did a three-sixty once they got closer to the building to make that there were no walkers coming in their direction. More than likely, it would not stay this quiet. The noise of the motorcycle engine had probably alerted more than a few walkers of Daryl and Beth's exact location. He figured they had some time to get in and out without any of the walkers rearing their faces because it was time for lunch.

The store was not in bad shape from the outside. No windows were broken and there were minimal amounts of damage done. The store was attached to a bunch of other smaller stores that did not look like they belonged together. Whoever decided to put a Weight Watchers center and a pizzeria right smack dab next to each other must have had a wicked sense of humor.

Daryl tested the front doors, the first on being locked, but the second on opened with ease. It was kind of a shame; he was sort of looking forward to smashing in the glass to get in.

Daryl peered inside and listened for any sign of movement. When there was none, Daryl motioned for Beth to go inside first while he held the door open. He took one last look outside before he followed her in.

It was darker on the inside, the only light coming through being from the big windows in the front of the store. There were various items strewn across the gray tiled floor. Some of the shelving down the aisles had fallen and knocked down other shelves, littering the floor with more products. It wasn't too bad. Daryl hoped that Beth would be able to find what she needed here because it was the most untouched place he had found in a while.

He glanced down all of the aisles with his crossbow ready to shoot if needed with Beth behind him. No walkers, no people. It was just the two of them there as far as he could tell.

"I'll be quick," Beth claimed as she went out in search of what she needed.

Daryl gave Beth some space as she went down the aisles to try and find whatever it was she was looking for. He kept closer to her as she perused the shelves. He stood at the end of the aisle waiting for her as she bent down and examined different items that were on the shelves.

Daryl quietly ventured into the opposite side of the adjacent aisle to show that he wasn't going to be looking over her shoulder the whole time, but was still keeping her in his peripheral vision.

He inspected some products that were on the shelves, not finding anything particularly interesting. Some of it had been picked over already, but it's not like the place was completely trashed. Most of what was left was tossed around, on its side or half opened. He quickly glanced back over at Beth, expecting to see her, but she was not in the aisle that he had left her in.

He traveled out into the middle section where the walkway was, dividing up the aisles. He heard a bit of rustling and went towards the noise. Beth was crouched down close to the ground at the end of one of the aisles further to the back, holding something in her hand. He couldn't tell what it was because most of her body was blocking the view.

He crossed into the other aisle and traveled along the side wall until he reached the other adjacent aisle from where she was, and once again pretended to be fascinated by another object that had a ton of dust on it. Daryl leaned in and blew the dust away to make the print more legible, which only made the particles fly back at him and forced him to breathe in the dirt, causing him to cough the dust out of his lungs.

_Smooth move._

There was a moderate creaking sound that came from in the back corner of the store. Daryl froze and listened closely to hear what it was, ready to act if necessary.

Right then two walkers came out of nowhere. Daryl heard the sound of their menacing growls before he could process what was about to go down. His head snapped up and to the left, his hands automatically dropping what was in it.

Beth, who had moved further away from him to the other end of her aisle, jerked backwards as two walkers came at her, gasping as she fell to the ground with the first walker who was trying to grab at her. The second one was closely following behind its partner.

"Beth!"

Daryl swung up his crossbow into an aiming position, trying to maneuver himself into the perfect distance to shoot. He couldn't get a clean shot with his crossbow without the possibility of injuring Beth in the process of a shot.

He swore it all happened so fast.

Beth's hand flailed out onto the floor as she held the walker back with her feet, attempting to get it away from her. Daryl could only watch as she grabbed the knife that had fallen to the floor with her and brought her body up to stab the walker in the eye, sinking it into its brain. Blood splattered out from its head as Beth pushed it back into the other walker that was coming for her, knocking that one down to the ground with the first walker body.

By then Daryl had rushed over to Beth's side, avoiding the random pieces of trash on the floor, and shot the other walker in the head while it tried to get the other body off of him. The arrow went in clean and the walker went back onto the floor, lifeless. He yanked the arrow out of the head and wiped off the excess blood onto his pants.

He turned his attention back to Beth, who was still on the floor in a sitting position. Her palms were flat on the floor, her legs out in front of her, and her feet caving in towards each other. The look on her face was enough to tell him that she was terrified.

"You okay?"

What a stupid fucking question that was. Of course she wasn't _okay._ She nearly just escaped death.

Daryl cursed at himself for having wandered so far away. He should have stayed closer to her. He would have never forgiven himself if something were to have happened to Beth.

Daryl leaned his crossbow up against the shelves. He took three steps closer to Beth and reached out his arms so she could take his hands to help her up. Beth grabbed on and Daryl helped pull her up onto her feet. When she didn't let go of her grasp on him, it prompted him to say, "It's over."

She was shaken up, and to be honest, he was too.

"It's a lot different when there's no fence between them and us." Beth's words came out in a tremulous manner.

"I know."

It was all he could say, all he could think to say.

Beth dropped her hands from his, and they found their way around him. She closed the distance between them as she put herself into an embrace with him. Another hug. It was different than the one the shared before when he had given her the journal. This time it was not out of thanks, it was out of the need to feel better about what had just happened. To feel like everything was indeed all right. To feel like she was alive.

It didn't feel uncomfortable like it had the last time; this time Daryl felt the need to respond to her action. Daryl placed one hand against the back of her head, below where her high ponytail was. The other he let press into her back.

There is a small part of him that dreaded letting go even though that was inevitable. _A little longer,_ he thought. Beth seemed to have read his mind because she ended up squeezing around his waist harder, letting out a sigh.

When it was over and she pulled away, for some reason he couldn't look her in the eyes. If he did, he ran the risk of her seeing how much he wanted her to stay put and not let go.

How childish of him.

Why did something as simple as a hug, a basic human action between two people, have the ability to have such an effect on him?

"We should go now," she whispered.

Beth took a few steps backwards and leaned back over to pick up the bloody knife that was flat on the ground. She picked up her backpack from the side, forcing some of the contents to come out of it and spill onto the ground. It looked like Beth had picked up a collection of things that she had found that could be useful while they were here—a box of band aids, batteries, a bottle of hand sanitizer, a few bars of soap, and a bottle of Ibuprofen. It was nothing out of the ordinary.

Beth hastily began to throw the contents back into her bag. He was about to question her on whether she had found what she needed when she reached out for something that was by his boots that he hadn't realized was there. She stopped midway. That's when he saw what she came here for.

The both of them froze.

_**A/N: So, I'm going to leave you with a bit of a cliffhanger (an evil thing to do?) and make you wait and see what it was the Beth needed to get. Any guesses? And FYI, I didn't get to edit this chapter much since my summer class is getting very demanding as the summer term is coming to its last two weeks. Then after that I get three full weeks in August before I go back for the fall term. Three whole weeks of writing! I'm excited. So excuse the fact that my updates for this story might not be as frequent or scheduled as I would like them to be through the end of July.  
**_


	10. Chapter 10

There was a fleeting moment where they are both frozen in place, unable to move an inch. Daryl's eyes met Beth's before he stooped down and grabbed up the package before she could get to it. He looked at it again to make sure that he wasn't seeing things.

A goddamned pregnancy test.

_Zach, _is the first thing that came to mind.

That fucker.

Beth opened her mouth to say something but then quickly shut it. She stood there, waiting for a response from Daryl. She took a few steps towards him and snatched the cardboard package out of his hands and threw it back into her bag without saying anything to him.

What? Was there going to be no explanation?

Screw that.

"The hell do you need that for?" he growled.

"I can't tell you," she responded, her head turning in the other direction before she dropped her gaze to the ground.

"Can't tell me? You dragged me all the way out here for a fucking pregnancy test and you ain't gonna bother saying anythin' 'bout it?"

He wished those walkers were still moving. He would like to kill them all over again.

Beth stayed silent, keeping her eyes trained on the ground. Daryl threw his crossbow over his shoulder and stomped his way around Beth with a sour look on his face. He felt cheated, in a way. Felt like shit to be honest. Even the jealousy was dropping by again to give him a big slap in the face. He still hated that feeling.

Freaking pregnancy test.

"Wait! Where are you going? Daryl!"

Daryl heard her footsteps as Beth ran after him but he didn't say anything to her. He didn't turn around. He kept walking, slamming the door open so hard that it shook the front part of the building.

If he had been wishing that the fresh air would calm him down, it didn't. He wasn't anything close to calm.

Across the parking lot was another walker. It dragged its feet towards them, jaw moving up and down like it was trying to eat the air. Daryl didn't have time for this shit. He marched right over to that filthy, grime-covered walker that was missing an eye without any hesitation. Daryl brought back the crossbow in one hand and put his weight into bringing it sideways with a lot of force. He slammed his crossbow right into the walker's face, making it fall to the ground as blood splattered out around it, staining the pavement.

He didn't take a second look. He could tell that the thing was dead from the impact of his crossbow.

He turned back around and saw that Beth was standing there in the middle of the vacant lot, watching him, her eyes seemingly worried. "Daryl!"

"What do you want, girl?" There he went again with the growling at her. His tone was harsh and unforgiving sounding. "It's time to go. I got shit to do. You're wastin' my time. Draggin' me all the way out here 'cause you think you got a bun in the oven. Fucking ridiculous."

He regretted the words as soon as they left his mouth. They were uncalled for. Daryl had a way of saying stuff like that. He never learned to think before he spoke whenever he was angry.

"Stop it!"

"Stop what?" Beth tried to approach him but he recoiled and headed for his bike. "Come on, Greene. Let's not stick around to get eaten for breakfast. Ya got what you came for."

Beth rushed after him again, grabbing his arm so that he turned back around to her. "Why are you acting like this? It's not for me!" she shouted at him. "I swear! Why would you even think that it was?"

Oh.

_It's not for her._ Now that he knew, he realized that he had been irrational to begin with.

Now he looked like a straight up jackass for not controlling his temper. His fucking emotions had gotten the best of him. Wonderful.

"I wish I could tell you but I can't. I promised someone that I wouldn't say anything. Please don't make me break that promise, Daryl. I will tell you everything when I can. Just not now. Please believe me."

The world seemed to slow down just then. Her words sunk into his skull. Daryl gave her an apologetic look. He remembered then how Beth had said in his cell that she needed to get something for someone. _Someone. _As in not for herself.

Of course _now_ he remembered that. It would have been nice if he had made that connection before he made himself look like an idiot for yelling at her, thinking that she was the one who thought that she was pregnant. What a fucking idiot he was. A fucking idiot who never thought anything through to rationalize before he spoke. What a joy is was to be him.

He should have said that he was sorry, that he screwed up and let his emotions get the best of him moments ago. He didn't. Daryl thought that him speaking would only make matters worse. He would say some shit that would force Beth to hate him, if she already didn't. If he were Beth, he'd walk right up to him and slap him for saying what he had.

"Can we go now? Someone is counting on me."

There was a certain sadness to Beth's voice. He knew that he had done that to her.

—

When they got back to the prison, Daryl avoided Beth. He had gotten off the motorcycle and headed in the opposite direction, ashamed of the way he had behaved. He was a grown man who freaked the fuck out on a young woman because for a second he thought that she was out getting a pregnancy test for herself.

_You always gotta screw somethin' up, don't ya?_ Merle's voice came back into his. He knew that the voice told the truth.

He had no valid reason to be angry back there. He replayed the whole situation over in his head as he sat in the guard tower, shutting himself away from anyone else.

The more he did that, the more he wanted to bang his head into the wall.

Maybe it wasn't as bad as the thought it was. There was a possibility that he could be blowing this out of proportion. Most likely that was not the case. Most likely he was still the bad guy who had yelled at Beth Greene because he was jealous and upset. And now he was aware that there was no reason to have felt that way, to have acted that way.

The thing he felt the most was guilt. His mind searched for ways to apologize to Beth, to let her know how deeply sorry he was for being a jerk to her. He figured that he would have a good shot at her forgiving him if he put his thoughts together first.

In the process of doing that, he bent over and rubbed his eyes with his hands. He felt so tired all of a sudden. The lack of sleep was catching up with him but he knew that there would be no sleeping until his conscious was clear and Beth had heard him out. If only he could figure out how to say everything that he wanted to.

The latch of the guard tower door opened, interrupting his thought process. He was surprised to see Beth climb up and over until she was on the floor and walking over to the opposite side of the tower.

Shit. He was at a loss for words.

Beth sat down across form him, leaning on the opposite wall. "It was for Maggie."

Now it made sense. She had promised her sister, her own blood, that she would not say anything to anyone. Her promise to her sister had trumped telling Daryl the truth about the pregnancy test in the first place, as it should. Beth had trusted Daryl enough for him to take her out on a run and he blew up in her face when he found out what she had gone in search for.

He wished that he could take it all back. He wished he could start this day over again and do it differently. If only time reversal was a real thing.

The way he had acted was inexcusable.

He had assumed and that was the major issue. Saw one thing and automatically thought he knew what was going on. He had a track record of doing that, one that was not pretty. _New flash. You ain't psychic._

In that moment he vowed to never assume something again. The saying about assuming is right—you ended up making an ass out of yourself because you're always going to be wrong.

"Sorry for being a dick to you," he apologized, not looking at her. He was afraid to see the look on her face. "Shouldn't have said what I did. Shouldn't have acted that way."

"Apology accepted." Those were the best two words he had ever heard.

Daryl started to mess with his crossbow to avoid looking at her.

"Maggie said it was okay for me to tell you." Beth got up off the floor and went over to the side of the guard tower so she could look out the window, back at the prison. "She's pregnant," Beth told him. "It's okay, though. At least she says that it is. Maggie says she's gonna be just fine."

The flashback of what happened to Lori was surely looming over the both of them.

Beth turned her gaze back to him. "Why did it bother you so much," she asked. "When you thought that the test was for me."

Daryl kept his head down. "I dunno."

"You don't know or you don't want to tell me? There's big difference."

This girl saw right through him.

He didn't want to tell her. Didn't want to say that he had thought she had been screwing around with someone and thought that she was pregnant. Didn't want to say that he had felt hurt in the moment where he had thought that—that Beth was with someone else that wasn't him.

There it was. He was being brutally honest with himself for the first time in his existence. Daryl didn't want Beth to be with anyone but him.

"I'm sorry," he repeated.

Sure, Beth had said that she accepted his crappy apology but he didn't know why she was so quick to do that. He hoped that he could fix this in some way and find a way to make things better. He wanted to say something that could change things. His whole life he had been cursed with saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. Never good with words was the understatement of the century.

Beth crossed the room and slide down the wall to sit next to him. "It's okay. Don't beat yourself up about it."

He peeked over at her, his hair falling into his face and partially covering his eyes. Beth didn't look mad or upset or like she was faking being nice to him. She looked like her normal self. "You sure?"

There's a fraction of him that wanted her to press him for answers, to demand that he spill his guts to her right then and there. _Enough with the bullshit_, that's what she should say to him. _Tell me how you really feel._

He wasn't ready to tell her, to say a word about it. He suspected that she had a good idea of what was going on inside his head due to his earlier outburst.

"I get it," Beth said in an even voice. For a second there his heart rate picked up because he is sure that she is going to say that she knows of the desires he's been keeping locked up. "You're…protective of me. And after what happened to Lori…"

That wasn't half the story but he's was going to roll with it. Beth offered up a reasonable excuse for his actions and he was going to take it for what it was. Telling her the truth would be too hard. He'd screw things up again.

Beth brought her hands back up and began to pick at her nails. "I should have told you that it wasn't for me back in the store and have said that right away when you saw. I don't know why I didn't. The look of horror on your face kinda scared me there for a second and I couldn't say anything," she continued. "So we're good now, right?"

"I should be the one askin' you that," he mumbled in her direction.

"Okay. Then ask it."

Daryl summoned up some bravery and glimpsed over at her. She was serious about this. Beth had her head leaned towards him and her eyes wide open, waiting for him to ask the question. "We good?"

"Of course." Beth folded her hands over each other and stretched them out on top of her legs. "Everyone's entitled to lose their mind and yell in a parking lot every once in a while," she mildly joked. "Little kids used to do it all the time. Freak out and scream at the top of their lungs because they didn't want to leave a McDonald's playground or something like that. But at least you didn't throw yourself onto the ground and kick the pavement like they did."

Daryl couldn't hold back smile that forced its way onto his face. He then sarcastically mentioned, "Wow. I feel so much better now…"

Beth giggled and got up off the ground, walking over to the latch of the guard tower. "Then my work here is done." She threw him a warm smile before she ducked down and started to climb back down.

Something about the way she had looked at him, the way she had smiled at him, made him believe that Beth had a clue of how he felt towards her. She hadn't mentioned anything to him about it. He didn't know if it was a good thing or a bad thing. But did it really matter right then? Beth was not mad at him and that was all he had wanted.

_**A/N: I must say that a few of you made me laugh with your guesses as to what Beth was getting. I enjoyed reading your thoughts and comments. Hopefully this chapter did not disappoint!** _

_**P.S. I was so hyped up on adrenaline from seeing the season 5 trailer today that I wrote three fourths of this chapter straight through and finished it (with the exception of watching the trailer a few more times. Okay, more like seven). Now the wait for October...anyone else want to skip over August and September?**_


	11. Chapter 11

They got ready to go on a big run. Glenn had made that evident when he and Maggie were arguing all through the prison about her going. She was pregnant and that deemed her unable to go if you asked Glenn. But Maggie was stubborn. Rick ultimately sided with Glenn, and so did everyone else. Maggie should stay here, within the prison fences until the baby came. Daryl could already tell that Rick was going to put that as the utmost importance, the memory of Lori forcing itself onto him. Rick wasn't going to let her go on any more runs no matter what, not while her unborn child's life was at risk.

He had made up his mind. And that was the end of that story.

After a long and emotional speech to her on Rick's part, Maggie caved. She would stay there and help Beth with fence duty. Glenn wasn't too happy about that either but it was better than her being outside the prison. He took what he could get. A wise decision on his part.

For the particular run they were going on today, Daryl had found this huge store that was filled with items days ago. The problem was that there had been walkers galore that were fenced in around the area. That was nothing that a boombox couldn't handle. Hopefully by this point all the walkers tore through that weak fence that held them in and went for the noise that had been strategically placed miles away.

So instead of Maggie going with them, she was substituted with Zach. Daryl, Sasha, Bob, Glenn, Michonne, and Tyreese were all waiting and waiting and waiting on Zach to get his ass outside so they could go. Everyone got impatient. Michonne stared down the door with her arms crossed over her chest and this blank expression on her face like it was her job. Daryl started to consider leaving without him if he didn't get his ass moving and get outside within the next minute. A cranky Michonne is not a fun one to be around.

Finally, Zach opened up the prison door and ran over to them. It was about damn time.

"So good of you to bless us with your timely presence, Zach." Michonne said, keeping her tone sharp, not moving from her stance.

"Sorry. I wanted to say goodbye to some people first. I didn't think it would take so long." They all went silent. Zach scratched his head and added, "You know, just in case."

Yeah, he did know. They all did. They knew there was always going to be a chance of them not coming back, not getting to say goodbye to the people who they cared about. How nice of him to remind them all.

"Look at you all dressed up to go on a run," Sasha acknowledged Zach's clean looking clothes. "Looking like a stud."

Zach put his hands up. "If only I had a dime for every time I heard that."

Lizzie passed between them with a few towels in her hands. "You'd have a total of ten cents," she smirked.

"Oh!" Sasha cooed, her jaw dropping. "Nice one."

They all bursted into a fit of laughter.

Lizzie, who probably weighed no more than eighty pounds and was just under five feet tall, could put someone to shame where they stood with only a few words. She looked innocent enough, but her smart and sarcastic remarks could chew right through someone.

It's funny, really. How someone so small could be so quick with her words.

"Very funny, Lizzie!" He called after her. Lizzie turned around and stuck out her tongue before she ran back inside. "Do you see that? That's what I get for being in the cell right next to her. The girl is a little devil, I tell you."

"Lizzie? _No_," Sasha denied. "She's an angel when she wants to be."

"We're wasting away the day here. Let's get going." When Michonne said something, people listened. There was no other option. "We've got a long drive."

They all head for the two cars that they were taking out for the run without furthering the conversation.

"Hey, Daryl!" Zach strode up next to him. "I have my guess for today."

Daryl smirked at him. Zach never let up about asking Daryl what he did before the outbreak. He had made into some sort of game—one guess per day and Daryl would answer honestly if he guessed correctly (only Zach would never would be correct so Daryl doesn't lose sleep over it).

And truth be told, Daryl didn't mind it that much. The guy had some sort of imagination. He didn't know how Zach came up with half the guesses that he did. But then again, he was taking a shot in the dark.

"Alright, go ahead."

Daryl waited as Zach narrowed his eyes on Daryl. "Okay, so I was thinking about this last night when I was going over all the other possibilities that I ruled out before. And I think I have a really good guess this time."

Daryl motioned for him to continue.

"Private Detective."

Daryl snorted. "Nope."

"Damn it!" Zach loudly cursed. "One day I'm going to get it."

Daryl rolled his eyes and pulled open the car door. "We'll see about that."

—

The ominous clouds should have been an indication of how the day was going to go.

Zach was dead.

_Dead. _

Gone forever.

Zach's death ate away at Daryl. A lot of internal distress came about after he watched Zach have his neck bitten into by a walker and then a roof collapse over top. He hadn't deserved to die, at least not in that brutal way. No one could have saved him, he knew that. But that didn't stop the guilt from working its way into him.

He had liked Zach, he really did. After Beth had told Daryl that she sent him packing, he found that he rather enjoyed Zach being around with his witty humor.

Daryl had been withdrawn the entire ride back to the prison. He was in the backseat of the car while Michonne drove and Sasha sat in the front passenger seat. No one spoke a word. No sound came out from any of them. All he could hear was the purr of the engine as they sped home with a car full of items that took from the store.

Daryl had stared out the window the entire time, replaying how Zach died in his head. The vision of a walker coming out from behind a stack of boxes and grabbing Zach by the throat was plaguing his mind. So much blood had come out of the kid, more than Daryl thought possible.

The look on Zach's face.

The realization that the roof was about to go.

The feeling of despair when there was nothing they could do.

They couldn't even bring his body back to bury him. That was another hit to the gut.

They had been doing so well lately and no one had lost their life until now. Now the cycle would repeat. They make silly mistakes, let their guard down the littlest bit and people die.

Daryl felt like a failure at this point.

—

As they pulled up to the prison, Daryl almost wanted to turn around go somewhere else. They were coming back with one less person.

Daryl ejected himself from the car once it had pulled to a stop. He wasn't going to be like Sasha and Michonne, who had remained in the front seats with blank expressions on their faces. He needed to get out.

Rick knew something was off when Daryl found him. Daryl told him about the death and Rick acknowledged it by giving Daryl a brief nod.

"The others?" he asked.

"Outside."

Daryl went straight to his cell after that. He needed to be alone. Away from the rest of the group, especially the members who had also watched as Zach's life come to an end. A painful end. Yes, it had been quick and in all actuality that is all anyone can ask for now—a quick ending. But it was still haunting to him, to think about the look of agony on Zach's face.

He stayed in his cell for a long time. Long enough for the day to turn into dusk. He kept thinking about how things had gone so well recently and all that had come to a tragic halt today.

They should have been more careful.

They should have checked for walkers _twice_.

_He _should have kept an eye on everyone.

Daryl laid on top of the covers of his bed. He had one arm extended above his head so that the back of his hand was rested on his pillow, his thumb placed on the top of his head. The leg that was closest to the side wall was bent up at the knee as the other one was straight out next to it. He was that way for a while, staring at the top bunk, not moving his stare anywhere else.

He closed his eyes at one point, putting his arm over his eyes to block out any remaining light that was coming through the windows. If only it could be that simple to block out the memories.

"Daryl?"

Daryl took his arm off of his face to see Beth holding onto the bars of the front of his cell. He adjusted his head so that it was more turned to her, his hand moving so that it was placed on his ribcage.

"I heard about what happened. Michonne told me. Are you okay?"

Daryl opted to stay silent. No words came to mind that he could say. He didn't know where to start, didn't know how to say that he felt like shit. Daryl had been in charge of the run and Zach had died on his watch. Yet another one of their own.

_The cycle_, he reminded himself. _The cycle never stops. _

That's the whole point. It's never-ending death trap, this world is. It liked to play this game where people could start to get comfortable with the way that things were, comfortable with the surrounding people, and then it yanked the rug out from under them and laughed as the scrambled to pick up the pieces. Laughed as the world left people distraught and overcome with grief.

"I'll take that as a no," Beth concluded, walking over to his bed.

She sat down on the edge of the middle of the bed. "There's nothing you could have done differently. It's not your fault that he's gone, Daryl. It's not your fault."

"Keep tryin' to tell myself that," he remarked.

"And you don't believe it?"

"We all should have been more alert. I should have been watchin' his back."

"Daryl," Beth breathed. "Don't do this to yourself."

"You know how he kept asking me…'bout what I did before the outbreak?"

Beth nodded her head, turning her body to him. She rested one hand onto the bed and cocked her head to the side. He wondered if she knew he was about to make a confession.

"Every day he'd ask. Come up with something. He was so damn determined to get the answer. I hated it at first but then it got interesting." Daryl sighed and leaned his head back onto his pillow so that he stared back up at the top bunk, his hand finding its way underneath his head. He couldn't look someone in the eyes and say what he was about to. "I wasn't anyone. I was driftin' around with Merle. Did everything that he told me to. Fucking stupid of me, I know. I was nobody. Nobody important."

Beth reached out towards his ribcage and took Daryl's hand in hers, enclosing his hand into her grasp. "You're someone _now_," she told him. "That's what matters."

She was so understanding that Daryl is caught off guard. He thought that he would have seen some form of disappointment in her eyes when he captured her glance but there was none. Not a trace.

Beth glimpsed down at how her hand has holding onto his. Her palm was resting over top of the back of his hand, over his knuckles, her fingertips grazing the inside of his palm. He retracted his fingers backwards against his shirt and put them over top of her own, his fingers feeling the smoothness of her nails.

"Whoever you were before isn't the person you are today." Beth smiled down at him, eyes gentle and a warm face. "You are so important to everyone here, Daryl Dixon. You need to remember that."

Daryl didn't know what to say. Beth always had a way of making him feel better. She made him feel like he _mattered_. That was something that he never had before. Not something he expected now, either.

"Move over."

He did what she told him without thinking about it first, moving over so that Beth could bring her legs up onto the bed. She laid down on her side, resting her head on Daryl's chest. No woman has ever done that with him; he had never allowed it to happen.

But, again, Beth was different.

_This_ felt different.

Her hand stayed enclosed around his. He didn't move his hand away; not a single part of his being wanted him to remove it. He was captivated by how soft her hands were in his rough and calloused ones.

"Don't blame yourself for what happened," Beth whispered, repeating her earlier statement. "No one can afford to beat themselves up about things they have no control over. I don't want you to do that to yourself, Daryl."

Beth let herself settle in. She moved in the little way to get comfortable, her head nestling in on his shoulder. He resisted the urge to stroke her soft hair with his other free hand. She looked peaceful like this, with him.

To anyone else, it would seem like this was a regular thing for them. It felt so natural to be like this with Beth.

He should have felt weird about this, having her so close. It was almost like he tried to force the uncomfortable feeling and awkwardness onto himself.

It never came.

That's when he knew. Daryl knew that his feelings towards this girl had gone deeper than he initially thought.

_**A/N: Don't even ask me how I got this chapter out so fast. I got such lovely comments on that the last chapter that it got me inspired. I should really be studying for my final week of class but I couldn't resist writing! **_

_**Also, this is getting redundant but I have to express to you all how much I appreciate you sticking with the story and giving me feedback! I've gotten a lot more people who are following the story lately and I am so thrilled about that. You all are some of the best readers a girl could have :)** _


	12. Chapter 12

A virus broke out. A virus that was up to no good.

As if they didn't have enough to worry about.

"I don't think it's life-threatening but these people need to stay in bed and away from others who are not infected by it." He heard Hershel's voice but wasn't looking at him as he talked to Rick as all the council members were all huddled around a table in the library. All he could think about was how Beth was one of those people, one of those who had been infected by the virus. "Now, I would suggest that everyone who is sick move into one cell block so that we can try and contain this as much as possible."

Hershel tried to be reasonable, keeping everyone as safe as possible. Still, Daryl felt the slight tinge of annoyance by the thought of having to lock Beth away in some cell block, even if it was for her own good and for the safety of others.

Trapping all these sick people together in isolation sounded horrible to him.

He was willing to do anything. He offered to go out on runs in search of medicine for them. Unfortunately, Hershel said that wouldn't do any good. He didn't know exactly what the virus was so there was no way for him to know what kind of medicine would work properly to counteract the virus that ripped through the prison, waiting to take its next victim. Hershel had rambled on about making some kind of herbal nonsense that would supposedly help after he suggested the containment of the sick people.

Herbs? _Bullshit_, he thought. But he's not going to stop him from trying. If there was a chance it would help then it was worth a shot.

The days kept going by, painfully slow if he might add. It wasn't the same as when Beth was around. She made the air light around him when she was near. The slightest interaction between them was enough to make his day.

So every time that he grabbed dinner or passed by the laundry room or looked out by the fences and Beth wasn't there like she usually is, it put him in this low mood that he couldn't extract himself out of. He had gotten so used to her being around that when she wasn't, he felt…_off_. Different. Strangely unusual.

Misplaced was a better word for it.

It was as if something was missing when he didn't get to see her. Even if it was just a glimpse from across the courtyard, that was plenty. Now he didn't have anything.

So the days go on and Daryl went to sleep every night wondering when these people, their own people, were going to get better, were going to pull through. His main concern is Beth but he's also worried about the others in the cell block that all the sick were moved into. As the days had passed, more and more were moved into there because they started coughing or throwing up. One morning Glenn freaked out because Maggie was throwing up but she had assured him that it was only morning sickness.

He saw, though, that Maggie would not have minded being in the cell block with her sister. She walked around with a look on her face that expressed her concern for Beth. That didn't sit too well with him. Maggie's emotions were clearly portrayed on her face for anyone to see. What bothered Daryl even more was that he didn't know much about what was going on in that cell block because Rick kept him busy at the fences since they were down a number of people.

Daryl had grown tired of not being in the loop. It had been almost a week since Beth was put into the cell block—while he set up traps in the woods and he remained pissed off about that—and all he had heard was bits and pieces of what was going on behind the cell block doors. There wasn't a lot of time to chat when a steady stream of walkers built up along the fences. So when he saw Hershel coming down the path towards the fences on his crutches, he perked up his ears to overhear what he was going to tell Maggie, who was several feet from the left of him.

"She's doin' just fine, Maggie. Being stressed all the time about it is not good for my grandchild."

Daryl glanced up after he impalined one of the few walkers that remained by the fences on his side. Maggie put her hand onto her stomach and clutched the material of her shirt. "I can't help it. I wish that I could do somethin', anythin'. All this waiting around and I feel like no one is getting better, and Beth—"

"There is nothing that you can do about it, sweetheart," Hershel cut her off by saying. "I can promise you, Maggie, that the both of you will be just fine. My girls are tough. Beth will pull through soon. The body needs time to heal itself. She's in a recovering stage, that's what I know. She didn't get the worst of it. Our Beth is fighting it off the best she can."

Daryl watched as Maggie absently nodded, trying to digest the new information.

"Now, I'm going out to try and find some of those herbs I was talking about earlier. I need to help these people. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about this, you hear? No arguing with me about this."

Maggie shook her head, kissing her father on the cheek. "I won't. Be safe."

As Hershel left, Daryl replayed his words in his head. Beth was recovering. That was a good sign. He told himself that over and over again throughout the morning and the afternoon. He finally came to the obvious conclusion that he needed to see it for himself. He needed to see how Beth was doing, needed to see her in general before he went batshit crazy.

He had been warned not to go in the isolation cell block, they all had been warned. Hershel would be the one to watch over those who were in there and relay their condition to the others. They were told that stepping into the cell block was a bad idea, that it ran too high of a risk of being exposed to the virus.

Whatever. He'd risk it.

He'd risk it for Beth, the girl who made him feel things that he had never felt before and had never imagined feeling for anyone.

She had a hold on him.

He hadn't seen Beth in a week. Hadn't seen her, hadn't heard her. And Daryl was not taking her absence pleasantly. Not at all. It was like going though a form of withdrawal.

So, yes, he walked straight into the cell block full of sick people that could get him infected all because he missed Beth. Missed her more than anything.

Foolish? Maybe. But not enough to keep him away.

It was quite evident that there was a sickness going around once he entered through the doors and passed down the hall. There was a staleness to the air but also a sense that some serious disinfecting had gone down in there, the sharp smell of bleach was overpowering at times. It reminded him of a hospital, how the air was clean but everyone knew that there was sickness and death floating around. It gave him the chills. The only time he was ever in a hospital was when he had to take Merle to the E.R. because he broke his hand in a fight with some drunk junkie at a bar.

One of the first things that he noticed was that white sheets were hung up on every single cell, making it impossible to see through unless the sheet was pulled aside. He guessed they were hung there to help keep things contained and to keep the coughing sounds from traveling far. Whatever this virus was, it made people extremely prone to sleeping most of the day when they weren't trying to cough up a lung. Hershel had said that was a good thing, that the body heals when asleep.

Daryl noticed that it was eerily quiet in there as he walked down the cell block, the noise of his boots sounding louder than they should be. He knew exactly which cell he was looking for due to an awkward conversation with Glenn that consisted of a lot of "why do you want to know?" and "you're not thinking about going in there, are you?"

He had the journal that he had picked up for Beth in his hands—his flimsy defense for going to see her. He didn't think for a second that Glenn believed him, but he didn't care. Glenn wasn't going to be one to ask too many questions regarding his whereabouts and then relay them to the group. Glenn respected Daryl's privacy, for the most part.

When he got to the second to last cell, Daryl pulled the sheet across. He should have warned Beth in some way that he was coming in and swore at himself for being so careless. For all he knew, she could have been changing her clothes or something like that. After all, he didn't want to invade her privacy.

But the good thing was that Beth was in her bed with a book in her hands and the covers pulled up and bunched around her chest. He wasn't sure if he had expected her to be awake or not, and if she hadn't been then he would have left her the new journal that he kept out of sight from her. However, she was awake, to his delight.

He felt whole again, simply from the sight of her.

The cell she was in was a plain, regular one like his own, with few personal items in it. This cell was very different from hers and he wondered how comfortable she felt in here, away from her familiar creative surroundings.

It took Beth a moment to realize that he was there, so entrenched into the book that she was reading that she hadn't seen him enter. When she did, her face had remained blank for a second before it turned into a wide grin.

"You shouldn't be here," Beth said in a quiet voice, looking up from the book she was reading. "I could get you sick."

Daryl let out a content sigh as he crossed the room to lean against the empty wall that was across from her bed. Yes, this had been worth it. Just hearing her voice relaxed him. "Wanted to make sure you were okay."

Beth gave him another grateful smile. "How's Judith?" she asked in a voice that turned lightly raspy.

"She's fine. She's with Carol."

Beth looked relieved. "Good."

"Your dad is out tryin' to find some sort of herbs. Went out into the woods with Sasha and Tyreese to get it. It's crazy if you ask me," he stated.

Beth propped herself up on her elbow, setting her book down onto the bed next to her after folding the page at the top to keep her spot. "Oh no. Don't tell me. Does he want to make a tea out of it?"

"You guessed right."

Beth smiled and then coughed a number of times, putting her hand on her chest. Daryl's teeth clenched together at the sound of it. He wanted to make it better, even if he didn't know how. "He would always do to that when Maggie, Shawn, or me would get sick. It tastes so gross but it actually helps. I swear. If it didn't there would be no way I would drink that stuff."

"Drink that tea like it's a Slurpee then, huh?"

Beth giggled. "Ouch, ouch! Don't make me laugh! It hurts," she sighed. "Everything hurts."

"Do you need anything?"

"Yes. Come here." Beth patted the spot next to her on the bed as she scooted closer to the wall to make room for him (not that she needed to because she was so small to Daryl). She turned onto her side and pulled a second pillow up to the top of the bed for him. "Entertain me, please. I've barely spoken to anyone in the past five days since Lizzie got moved to the end of the hall."

Well, it's not like he could really refuse the request.

That triggered Daryl to remember that he had the journal pressed against his back from his hands being twisted around. Why he had tried to hide it in the first place, he wasn't entirely sure.

He followed her suggestion and he crossed the room to lay down on top of the covers next to her, holding up the journal once he was laying down. "Got you this."

Beth's face lit up in the same way it did the first time he gave her a journal. Beth admired the deep red journal that had two straps that tied in the front and a pen attached to the side. "So pretty. Thank you."

"What do you write about in 'em?"

He shouldn't have asked the question because it seemed like a form of an invasion of privacy. He is genuinely curious, though. He would watch her sometimes when she was so focused on writing. Her pen would glide across the paper like she couldn't get the words written down fast enough, but no matter what, she wrote in a graceful manner.

"A lot of things," Beth told him, pulling the covers up over her shoulder. "How the day went or what is going on around here. I write poetry and songs when I get the chance." Beth let her hands peek out from under the covers and she started to pick at her nails. "_You_, sometimes."

Daryl is a bit surprised. "Me?"

"Yes, you."

He could only wonder what she could possibly write about him. "Really? What do you say? Daryl Dixon is an asshole who drives me crazy and I hope a walker eats him?"

Beth laughed again, not coughing this time. She put a hand onto his arm and gave him a light nudge. "I would never say that!"

"Okay, just checkin'," he responded.

Daryl took the brief silence that followed to inspect Beth. It was clear that she was not feeling well. She had darker circles under her eyes, not prominent ones but they were there. Her eyes were slightly puffy and her face was paler than usual. He didn't think it was possible to get paler then Beth already was, but he had been wrong since most all of the color was gone from her skin tone.

There she was, tucked up in bed with an unknown virus and she still looked stunning, in his opinion. Anyone who argued that was a fool.

Beth's voice interrupted his thought pattern. "Why are you here?"

"Figured you needed somethin' to keep you busy," he said, picking up the journal that was between the two of them on the bed before placing it back down. "Been stuck in here so long. Thought you might be goin' crazy by now with nothin' to do."

But, really, he was the one who had been going crazy.

Beth blinked at him a number of times, examining him. She was not convinced by his answer. "Giving me the journal could have waited until I wasn't contagious and in a cell block full of people who could pass a virus onto you. Awfully risky if you ask me."

Daryl let out a long sigh. Like most of the time, he didn't know how to answer her inquiry that easily poked holes through his excuses.

"You missed me, didn't you?"

It sounded more like a statement than a question.

"Maybe."

"Enough to jeopardize your health?"

"Yes."

"So you really _did_ miss me."

He didn't reply but she already knew the answer. Probably knew it from the second he walked into the cell.

Beth nestled in closer to him. "Good. I missed you, too. And if you're not worried about gettin' sick, would you mind staying? I'll even share some of the songs I wrote in my other journal. No one gets to read them. And I mean _no one_. You'll be the first, but only if you stay."

Like he would ever say no.

"Yeah. I'll stay."

—

Somehow he managed to fall asleep because the next time he woke up it was dark outside. It took a few seconds for his eyes to adjust to the absence of light in the room.

Beth was there. The realization hit that he had slept with her. Well, not _slept _with her. Had fallen asleep with her next to him.

Her arm was now draped haphazardly over his chest. She must have kicked off the blankets sometime while he was asleep, nothing in between them now. Daryl had remained flat on his back but Beth was resting on her side, her leg hitched over his so that her ankle was in between his own two legs. Her body was thoroughly pressed into his side. There was only the thin material of her camisole that kept the skin of his arm from touching her stomach.

With the turn of his head, he smelled the scent of her skin. Even when she was sick as a dog, Beth managed to smell heavenly, the faint aroma of vanilla lingering on her from that shampoo and soap that she used.

Daryl's eyes glazed over Beth. The familiar stirring in his pants told him that it was time to get the fuck out of there and to stop shamelessly looking at her exposed cleavage as she slept next to him. The last thing he wanted was for Beth to wake up to see he was hard. There would be no explaining that, no way around it.

He didn't want to go, didn't want to leave her. He was trapped in the middle. Daryl wanted to spend the rest of the night here until morning came around. However, he didn't think that Hershel would appreciate it very much if he walked in to check on Beth only to find Daryl in her bed. That would not go down so well. So he stole a few more short seconds of watching her peacefully dream away, her breathing slow and her body not moving other than her chest rising and falling.

He tore himself away gently, picking up her arm that was draped over him and setting it back down onto the bed, his hand lingering on hers longer than it should have. He pulled the sheets back up over her shoulders and watched as she shifted, adjusting to him no longer being there.

Daryl went back down the hall and out of the cell block. He thought to himself on the way to a much needed cold shower of how if he got infected that it would have been worth it. Having time with Beth would be worth the potential virus that might be crawling its way through his immune system.

"Where have you been?" Daryl glanced up at the sudden voice to see that it was Glenn, who was walking towards him down the hallway, rubbing his eyes and looking disheveled. He must have recently woken up, much like himself.

"Nowhere," he quickly responded, feeling like he was caught. "Why you up?"

"Maggie needed some water so I offered to go get her some instead of having her stumble around trying to get it," he explained. Glenn suspiciously examined Daryl, a grin forming on his face. "You were coming from the isolation cell block, weren't you?"

Daryl stared at him, not blinking. He hoped that Glenn got the message that where he had been was indeed his own business and he would like it very much if he didn't tell anyone about this.

"Dude, it's cool. I'm not one to judge. Even if I was, I'm too tired right now to care about anything other than getting Maggie water."

Glenn walked around him and continued down the hall to the cafeteria where they kept extra water. Glenn mumbled something, something he didn't catch all the way, but it sounded a lot like, "Those Greene women make a guy do crazy things."


	13. Chapter 13

_**A/N: I went on a writing spree last night so I decided to spoil you with an early update**_**_! I was too excited about this chapter to make anyone wait :)  
_**

Daryl collected his crossbow and headed into the woods. Now that he was fully aware of the extent in which his feelings went for Beth, he didn't know how act around her anymore. He didn't know how to keep it all concealed from her either, especially after how he felt comfortable enough that he fell asleep with her in her cell when she was recovering from the virus, after she had showed him all of the beautifully composed songs she had written down in the journal he had given her. Now he saw how comfortable that Beth had become with him, too.

She was completely recovered from that virus now, taking it easy around the prison like the others, and for that Daryl is more than thankful. Now that he was no longer constantly worried about her being in the isolated cell block, his attention shifted to something else. Daryl was afraid that if he saw her in the prison and they were left alone together that the words of how he felt about her, all of the affection and pure desire, might blurt right out of his mouth. It would come out in some twisted form because of his inability to speak properly to people when it came to _feelings_.

He wasn't ready to say anything. That's why he retreated into the woods.

He felt more at home in the woods than he did at the prison. Don't get him wrong, the prison was fine. But there was something about the woods that sheltered him. Daryl liked hearing the sound of the birds taking flight above him and the rustling of small little critters that scurried about in the trees or on the ground. He liked how the smell of the woods stayed on him long after he had left them, the smell of pine and soil. But most of all, he liked that, for the most part, it was quiet.

The nature kind of quiet. Still. Calm. Relaxing.

He doesn't have to be out here; he wanted to be. He wanted to go hunting while he could, while there wasn't a fuckload of walkers at the fences. Hunting was his distraction. The distraction from Beth, that is. He's been staring more and more recently. In the past few days he is sure that his eyes have never left her when she was in sight. Now he was paranoid that someone was going to find out. In all seriousness, he didn't want to turn into one of those guys who pines after a woman and stares at her from afar like he was trapped in some kind of Shakespearean novel.

Yet here he was, that guy.

So that was why he was out in the middle of nowhere as he tried to hunt down his fourth rabbit. Tracking kept his mind otherwise occupied from wandering thoughts about what he really desired to be thinking about. Or _who_, rather.

It didn't take too long for Daryl to track down the furry creature and then collect it once he had skillfully put an arrow through it. As he strung it with the others, he heard a loud snapping of twigs on the ground behind him and automatically twisted around to shoot at what he was sure was going to be a walker coming for him.

It wasn't a walker. But it was something that was arguably just as bad.

"Fuck!" he cussed upon realizing that it was his brother. He lowered his crossbow so it pointed to the ground. "You scared the shit out of me! I almost put an arrow through you."

Merle stood there with his hands out in front of him—well, with one hand in the air and the other had some sort of metal contraption covering where his stump would have been, a blade jutting out of it. What a sight that was.

"Relax. Ain't ya happy ta see me?" Merle asked, this wild, animalistic smirk on his face.

His brother sure knew how to make an entrance.

"Yes," Daryl grumbled. Of course he was glad to see his brother was alive and well. But he already sensed the differences between them from the last time they were together.

Merle dropped his arms back down to his side, and then elected to point his finger at Daryl. It was not in an accusatory way, it was more like an 'I'm about to let you know what shit has been going down' kind of way. "I'm not too surprised to see you. I've seen ya, brother. Walkin' 'round that prison actin' all cozy there. A prison, really? Odd choice of a place. Woulda thought that would be the last place you'd want ta be at. Seen you've been hangin' around with little _blondie_. What's her name, huh? Awfully pretty that one. "

Daryl changed the subject. "The hell are you doin' out here, Merle?"

"See the thing is, I was over in Woodbury before The Governor decided to take two steps too many into Crazytown. Bet ya heard all 'bout Woodbury from your new friend Michonne, ain't that right? She's a fucking peach, that one. A real fighter."

Daryl furrowed his brows and narrowed his eyes at his brother, ignoring how Merle said that he had been in Woodbury. He was more eager to learn how in the world Merle knew Michonne and what was up with his snarky attitude towards her. "How do you know her?"

"It's a long story," Merle explained while he tried to hold back his usual 'up to no good' smirk. Daryl got the sense that it was not a particularly good story. It never was if it involved Merle.

"Make it short."

Merle shifted his stance, now scowling back at Daryl. "Well, let's see here. The samurai left town in a hurry after bein' there for a while. Governor didn't like that too much. Wanted me ta bring her back. Crazy bitch wanted to fight when we finally caught up to her. Turns out she didn't like The Governor too much."

Daryl made the connection that Merle was the psycho that Michonne had referred to as the one who shot her in the woods when he came after her. He's pretty disgusted by it. His brother has done some bad things in the past, hell he has too, but Daryl never thought Merle would go after someone and put a bullet into them. "Are you stupid? Why the hell would you shoot Michonne? I heard all 'bout _that_ part."

Merle shrugged as if it were no big deal. "She put up a fight. Figured it would slow her ass down."

"Jesus," Daryl muttered under his breath.

"That's why I didn't come for ya sooner," his brother clarified. "Didn't want samurai gettin' wind that I was around. She'd cut me into pieces and serve me to them biters on a silver platter. Laugh the whole time, too."

He wanted to say that it sounded like he deserved it but he kept his mouth shut about that. It was better that way.

"What do you want? I ain't gonna pack up my shit and leave with you, Merle, if that's what you're thinkin'. Things ain't the same as the used to be."

Merle paused, looking indifferent. Daryl knew what was coming next. Merle was never one to forget something that Daryl had deflected in a conversation. He always loved to bring up something that Daryl didn't want to talk about. Daryl sometimes wondered if his brother thought of it as a game—let's see what will provoke Daryl the most and use it against him. So much fun.

"You never told me Little Miss Prom Queen's name. Don't be tellin' me that you've got yourself some young little hot blonde girlfriend now. Sweet little thing she looks like," Merle antagonized, not letting up.

Daryl didn't respond. He knew this game all too well. It was played by Merle ever since they were kids. He was trying to get a rise out of Daryl, throwing punches where he could manage to get them.

_Don't let him get to you,_ Beth's voice said to him, startling him a bit.

Daryl shook his head at his older brother. It almost saddened him. The two of them were so different now. They used to be similar in so many ways—same attitude and same outlook at the world. Daryl had been Merle's shadow for so many years.

Things changed.

Daryl changed.

He was his own man now, no longer living in the dark and shallow depths of his brother's overbearing shadow. Merle did not have his claws dug into Daryl anymore. Never would again. He wouldn't allow that.

Daryl turned and started to trudge off in the opposite direction with his crossbow in hand, avoiding the various plants and rocks that were around.

"Hey! Where ya goin'?" Merle shouted at Daryl.

"You know where," Daryl spat out back at his older brother as he stopped and turned around.

He watched as Merle approached him, indignant since Daryl preferred life at the prison with the others than back with his brother on the road somewhere doing some stupid shit. "Oh, that's right. I know why you're goin' there. Back to blondie. She looks like she's a fun right, ain't that right? Why you in such a fuckin' rush, huh? Maybe that's what it is," he sneered. "You runnin' back so fast so you can go and deflower her? "

Daryl's fist connected with Merle's face. He fell backwards onto the ground, looking back up at Daryl with a shocked expression played out on what was going to be a bruised face in the coming hours. He had not expected Daryl to hit him the way he did. And honestly, Daryl is holding back. He would like to beat the shit out of Merle for saying that about Beth, for using her as his tool to hurt Daryl.

He was frustrated and pissed off that his brother always had to mock him in some way, had to push him to his limit and well passed it.

Bad fucking decision this time.

"Don't you ever talk about Beth!" He yelled at what seemed like the top of his lungs, his voice gruff and filled with anger as he growled out the words. Screw it if walkers came for them. All the built up anger towards his brother was coming out all at once. If Merle wanted a reaction, he was sure as hell going to get one. "Don't you ever say shit like that about her again! Or I swear to God, Merle, you'll regret it. Every fucking word."

Daryl's whole body trembled with rage. A rage that he had never experienced before.

From the dumbfounded look on Merle's face, Daryl came to the obvious conclusion that Merle was shocked by the impact that Daryl had delivered and by his harsh choice of words. Merle was so accustomed to Daryl following his lead and staying by his side no matter what that the reaction Daryl gave was unusual to Merle.

That's what happens when you pull the last straw that breaks the camel's back. Merle pushed too hard and it broke Daryl, made him snap. But honestly, he had been hanging on by a thread for many years now, even before the outbreak. It had only been a matter of time.

"You wanna be with me, your only brother? Fine. I get that. You can come back with me if you want. But you better apologize to Rick for being such a goddamn douchebag back in Atlanta! And then possibly do the same for Michonne and maybe she won't cut out your intestines and strangle you with them. It ain't up to me to decide who stays and goes. That's on everyone. All of us. So the choice is yours," Daryl said in a calmer voice. "Do what you want. I'm done with listenin' to you."

"Oh, I see," Merle started as he got up off of the ground, a disgusted look on his face. "Rick and you like Batman and Robin now, ain't you? Ya got Sleeping Beauty on your arm and now you think that—"

"Shut up!" he spat out. Daryl didn't think it was possible for him to hear anymore derogatory insults from Merle. "I don't know what you want from me. Sayin' shit ain't gonna help you out none."

He is at the point where he didn't think he knew who Merle was anymore. That is why he turned and marched away from him. If Merle wanted to try and fix things then he needed to be the one to go out of his way to do that. It wasn't up to Daryl to pick up the pieces of their broken relationship and glue it back together.

He stayed out in the woods near the prison for a long time after the huge blowout with his brother. He sat up against a tree, staring at the ground with his crossbow on his lap, unsure to believe if he had actually said the things that he said to Merle and stood up to his brother. Hell, he was half shocked that he had the balls to finally express some of what he got off his chest.

It felt like a ton of weight was lifted off his shoulders.

He figured that there was a fifty-fifty shot that Merle would go to the prison. He knew his brother well enough to know that Merle would probably be gone for some time before he found his way back. He would be angry at Daryl, pissed off so much that he would be trudging around the woods muttering how Daryl wasn't grateful for anything over the next few hours.

That was okay with him. Merle could think what he wanted to. Daryl isn't going to waste his time being worried about it. Merle knew how to survive. And Merle also knew that Daryl was the only blood he had left. And probably the only person left in this world who would tolerate him to a certain extent; not that anyone really tolerated him in the old world. Hell, no one tolerated Daryl either but he was the quieter brother, the one who didn't like to speak up as much and that kept him out of a lot of trouble, unlike Merle.

So, no, he didn't look back. Daryl got up from the ground and kept going until the prison walls came into view.

—

Beth was outside when he got past the gate and sauntered up the dirt path. He saw her in the distance as he approached, her jacket on and her arms wrapped around herself because the early fall weather was turning cooler as the sun went down to mark the arrival of the night. She got up from where she sat on the ground by the entry door and rushed over to him when she spotted him coming towards her.

He had never been so happy to see another person in his whole life.

"There you are! I was beginning to get worried," she genuinely told him, overjoyed that he was back. He saw the relief in her eyes. She reached her arms up and threw them around him. "I'm glad you're safe."

Beth's face felt cold against the material of his shirt as she hugged him and it prompted him to ask, "It's late. How long you been out here?"

"A while. But that doesn't matter. The dark doesn't scare me," she said. "You're here and you're safe. That's all I care about."

And that might just be one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to Daryl. Her words were authentic and undisputedly true to the core. Something that exposed Beth's immense affection for Daryl.

Beth pulled herself back somewhat and planted a kiss onto his cheek. His head turned to the side, his cheek brushing up against hers. It was a move that he had not expected to make; it was more of an instinctual drive that made him do it. Something about Beth that made him do it.

Beth removed her lips from the side of his face a fraction of an inch. She moved them towards his own before looking up at him, their eyes meeting.

He doesn't feel afraid.

Or nervous.

Or even insecure.

Beth had eradicated that from him right in that moment when she stared up at him with the beautiful blue orbs that made up her eyes.

Before he could do anything, Beth let her eyes flutter shut and closed the small distance between the two of them, placing her lips onto his. His eyes closed as he relished in the feeling of Beth's soft and smooth lips on his own. It was a brief kiss, one that was timid, but it made him lose himself entirely.

Any thoughts about how he should not be doing this obliterated the second Beth's lips touched his. His thought process went out the window.

Beth got down off of her toes and looked up at him with parted lips, eyes seeming to sparkle against the background of the dark surroundings. It was like the stars were in her eyes, or at least they were reflecting the light in the night sky. Daryl let out a shaky breath. It seemed like Beth stared straight into his soul.

He doesn't mind that.

He couldn't resist, not anymore, not right then. His willpower had diminished completely. There was nothing left of that at this point. His mind and body told him what it wanted. That's why when Beth lifted herself onto her toes to put her lips onto his again, he didn't stop her. Not for a second did he want to.

Daryl let the crossbow that he had been holding at his side drop to the ground with a loud thud, along with the four rabbits he had strung over his shoulder and had been draped down his back.

Beth snaked her hand up and placed it on his neck before it traveled upward so that her thumb was pressed against his jawline and her fingers were around the side of his neck. Her other arm reached up and she placed her other hand delicately onto his shoulder until she let it slide off and draped it above his shoulder blades, palm pressed firmly on his back, covering part of the angel wings on his vest.

He pulled her in until she molded against his body, hands pressing on her back so it pushed her further against him. He grabbed at the material of her shirt as he moved his mouth against hers in a more confident manner.

Yes, this was definitely just like heaven.

It felt _right_.

Maybe he's crazy for doing this. Maybe Beth is crazy for going with it.

Or maybe, just maybe, the both of them are completely sane and this was how things were supposed to be.

_**A/N: I also posted a smutty oneshot today about Beth and Daryl after their reunion in season 5. So if that's your thing then please go check it out!  
**_


	14. Chapter 14

Daryl had finished refilling all the car gas tanks and had moved on to checking the oil when it neared sunset. It's a shame that they never ran into a skilled mechanic on any of their runs. They could definitely use one. Their cars ended up getting pretty beat up. Daryl didn't think he fit the profile for this sort of stuff but he was the one who knew most about cars. Of course, Axel had offered to help out, saying something about a couple of old friends of his who owned a repair shop a while back. Daryl being Daryl declined the help since he liked to do things by himself. Alone.

Daryl headed over to the last car he needed to check. He opened the hood of green Hyundai Tucson and started messing with the oil cap when he saw Carol coming towards him.

"I heard about what happened last night," Carol declared when she was by his side.

Daryl's eyes snapped up to hers, stilling his movements. "What?"

"About your brother," she clarified. "Rick told me."

Daryl let out a breath that he just came to realize he was holding in. "Oh, right. That."

For a second there he thought that she had meant how he kissed Beth outside the prison. It had been so late that he was sure that no one had seen it. That was something strictly between him and Beth and he wanted to keep it that way. At least until he figured out what he was supposed to do about it.

"You alright? You seem on edge."

Daryl went back to messing with the car engine, avoiding having to look at Carol. "Fine."

Carol stood there quietly for a moment. "Should we be expecting Merle here anytime soon?"

"No clue."

"Well, you're his brother. Don't you think that he'll turn up eventually? Because I do. No matter what you said to him out there. I don't want—I don't want him to mess up any of the progress you've made."

Daryl took his hands out of the engine and wiped the grease onto his pants. With a sigh, he turned to Carol, who was looking concerned about what had gone on between him and his brother in the woods and at the potential for Merle coming to the prison. He couldn't blame her for that.

"Progress?" he questioned, crossing his arms.

"We both know that you're not the same man that I first met when Merle was still with you," Carol explained matter-of-factly. "I don't want him to weasel his way back into your life and try to mess the good things you got goin' for you."

That last part made him immediately think of Beth. She was a good thing in his life. A great thing. The best of them all.

Daryl sighed as his inner thoughts started to take over again. His mind had raced all last night and he barely got any sleep after he left Beth in the courtyard. He ran away, not actually in a run, but figuratively speaking, yes, he made a run for it last night after he tore himself away from their kiss. He had mumbled something about having to be somewhere else and left her standing there, never turning around to check on her.

Stupid of him.

Really, really stupid of him.

He should have stayed. But there was nothing that he could do about that now, was there? By this point Beth probably regretted everything that transpired between them the previous night.

_Don't be so assuming_, her voice said. _Told yourself you weren't gonna do that._

"He ain't gonna mess shit up," he explained to Carol, focusing himself on the current conversation. She wasn't going to believe him entirely but he thought that if he said it out loud then the both of them might see some form of truth in it. "Why would ya think I'd got back to that anyways? It ain't like I actually liked the person I was then."

Daryl knew he was getting defensive about this. He hated that Carol seemed to be so worried about Merle changing Daryl back into his own personal lap dog.

It wouldn't happen.

Carol nodded her head and dropped her gaze to the dirt. "Alright. If you say so." She pointed back to the prison. "I trust your judgment. I'm gonna go get Judith from Beth. I'll see you later."

Well, for a second there he had stopped thinking about Beth. But now he was alone again and the image of her popped back up, as he suspected it would. He remembered how good the sensation of her lips on his had felt and how nothing else had mattered in that moment except for Beth. He reminisced about how right the world had seemed to him in that moment they shared. Surely he couldn't be the only one who had felt that way.

Or could he?

Beth had kissed him back so logically she wouldn't have done that if she hadn't been enjoying herself.

He sounded like a twelve year old girl now.

He needed to stop.

Daryl slammed the hood of the car shut and headed inside to shower off a day's worth, sweat, oil from the engines, and walker blood. The only thing that really bothered him out of the three was the blood. He couldn't bring himself to ever sleep in his sheets with that shit all over him. It kind of creeped him out—the blood of a walker kill on him as he tried to soundly fall asleep, getting the sheets stained with red rotten blood. No thanks. Not many things disturbed Daryl but that was one of them. At the end of the day, he had to get a majority of that blood off.

—

The ideas about Beth persisted in his head as he walked through the prison. Should he or shouldn't he, that was the question. And he would really like a answer. He decided to wave the white flag to the battle that was going on inside his mind.

He should do what felt _right_. And that was being around Beth

He was tired of beating himself up about the way he felt. He felt the way that he did, end of story. It's not like he had a whole lot of control over that sort of thing.

This whole time Beth had been breaking down the walls that he had built up around him. Walls that he thought were indestructible. He couldn't have been more wrong about that. How she had taken the walls down layer by layer in such a short period of time when it had taken him years to build them up and solidify them, he had no idea.

He didn't let people in, didn't let them get too close.

Beth was different. She was the first person who he let his guard down with. The first person he let see inside his world. Let her see into a part of his past.

Beth.

She was his safe harbor. A place where he was safe and secure. She didn't judge him or want him to be different. She liked him just as he was.

That right there was more than he could ever ask for.

The lines were blurred now. Indefinitely blurred. There was no returning to the way that things were before last night.

Among all of this, Daryl should have been watching where he was going. He smacked right into someone smaller than him as he turned the corner into the where the showers were.

"Oh!"

Wait. He knew that voice.

And there she was. Beth Greene stood before him, adjusting the light blue towel that was wrapped around her body. He saw her relax when she realized that it was him.

"Hi," she greeted with a shy smile.

"Hi," he said back, hoping that the nervousness wasn't as obvious in his voice as he had perceived it to be.

Beth must have just gotten done with a shower because her skin emitted the lightest shade of pink from the warm water that they were lucky enough to have. Water droplets were still on her skin, collecting around her collarbone. Beth's hair was draped over both shoulders and he didn't realize it was as long as it was since he was used to seeing her hair up in a ponytail.

She was beautiful, in every sense of the word.

"What?" she questioned, tucking a strand of wet hair behind her ear, and suddenly self-conscious due to his prolonged gawking.

"Nothin'," he replied. "Just never saw ya with your hair down, is all."

He saw the light blush that crept up onto her cheeks. He enjoyed that. A lot.

Beth played with the ends of her hair with the hand that was free from keeping her towel around her, hugging at her small waist. "I rarely see _myself_ with my hair down. It got so long over the summer. I swear to you it's like a weed. I should trim it."

The suggestion that Beth had made to him about keeping his own hair longer came to mind. "Don't," he told her, about to repeat the words that she had said to him in his cell a while back. "Looks good this way. I like it."

The blush on her cheeks persisted and Beth dropped her gaze to the floor, then back up at him. She hugged her towel tighter. "Okay. I won't cut it."

"Should wear it down more often," he suggested, acting more fidgety because he is avoiding bringing up the kiss they shared. That and because Beth was only in a towel before him—which is the overriding reason why he was twitchy.

Beth ran her fingers through her wet hair again. "Maybe I will."

There is a short silence between them. Whatever he was supposed to say in a situation like this was beyond him. Eluded him completely. He had never dealt with this kind of awkward run in before.

One thing he knew was that he should apologize for running off last night, for being cowardly and chickening out. He could naturally be brave in any situation except one that involved his feelings or Beth Greene. The combination of the two left him painfully timid.

He should really work on that.

"So," Beth slurred. "I should go change. Maggie said she was going to bring me clean clothes but she hasn't yet so she must have forgot. Looks like I have to make a mad dash to my room."

He didn't like the idea of Beth walking from here to her cell in only a towel. So he would risk the following embarrassingly clumsy way he put words together to ensure that she was comfortable.

"Are you sure?" he hesitantly asked. "I could—could go get them for you…if you want."

"Oh," she expressed. "You would do that?"

Daryl nodded, turning to exit out of the showers before Beth changed her mind. "From Maggie?"

"You can just get them from my cell. It's closer. There's a few things folded on the table in the corner of my cell. Pick whatever, it doesn't matter. But are you sure it's not a lot of trouble?"

Daryl was already headed out, signifying that he was going get her clothes. "No trouble."

He noticed how his heart was beating faster as he went down the hallway and around the corner until her found himself at Beth's cell. She had a way of elevating his heart rate like no other.

There were clothes on the table like she had said. He hoped that he was going to pick something that matched because he had never picked out an outfit for a girl before. He went simple with it to avoid any mishaps with the colors, going with a pair of jeans and a gray short sleeved cotton shirt for her to wear.

His hand hovered over the black bra and panties when he went to grab them. He couldn't ignore the sense that touching them was like touching some kind of sacred ground since Beth wore this overtop of the most intimate places that existed on her body. He could only imagine what she must look like in only these pair of items.

The images floated into his brain, not that they hadn't been there before. Believe him, they have been. Many times over.

He let his fingers lightly brush over the satiny material. Shit. He needed to focus at the task at hand. He scooped them up quickly and hid them underneath the folded shirt that was collected in his hands so he wouldn't be tempted to touch them again.

Daryl quickly made his way back to the showers and saw that Beth was in the same place she stood when he had first come in. He walked over and extended out his hand to let her grab the clothes.

"Thanks," she expressed with her usual grin, taking the clothes into her hand and then holding them in against her chest. She stood there in her place for a moment before she added, "You saved me from a possible embarrassing run in with someone in the hall."

Beth began to walk back over to the shower she must have come out of and stepped in, pulling the curtain across so she could change. Daryl lingered because the curtain does not exactly offer the most amount of privacy. It was white and a bit see through so anyone would be able to make out the shape of someone's body from the other side.

"Right. Okay. I'm gonna shower."

Daryl yanked one of the clean towels off of the rack that was installed into the wall, throwing if over his shoulder so he could reach down and remove his boots. He also went to the far side of the room to where there was the line of showers all in a row, each separated by a thin wall with a curtain in the front. There was no way he could have halted his eyes from peeking over at the shower that Beth had gone into.

He shouldn't have.

He did.

He caught a glimpse of the outline of her silhouette without the towel on her body. Gorgeous. He could tell that much.

Fuck. Why did he do that to himself?

He made a brisk movement to get into the shower that he had chosen, one that was at the end of the row which was three away from Beth. He swiftly turned the water on and the cold temperature of the water came spurting out from above. He removed all of his clothes and threw them into the corner so they wouldn't get wet.

"Thanks again, Daryl," he heard Beth's voice say, closer to him but not right in front of the shower.

It then occurred to him that she would be able to somewhat see through this curtain as well, as much as he could when it was her behind the shower curtain.

He cleared his throat. "Sure," was what he was able to get out.

"It's early but I'm going to get some sleep. Can you come by tomorrow? I want to talk to you about somethin'."

And there it was. She requested that they talk about what happened the previous night. She wasn't specific about it but what else could it be? Nothing. It was quite obvious about what she wanted to discuss. A nervous edge made its way through every part of his body and then settled in the pit of his stomach.

"Yeah. That's fine."

"Okay. Great," she replied, her voice sounding light and airy in its normal tone. "Goodnight."

"G'night," he whispered, though he is sure that it was not loud enough for her to hear above the noise that the shower was making, the water hitting the white tiled floor powerfully.

Daryl ducked under the waterfall that came down from the showerhead once he was sure that Beth had left. He kept it at a cooler temperature because his entire body felt like it was on fire. His sneaky glimpse over at Beth before he got into the shower was front and center in his mind. All that combined with actually having kissed her a little less than twenty four hours ago spelled trouble for him.

He was very much aware of how his body was desperate for a release with all of this bouncing around in his head. He was rock hard from that already but he really didn't want to give into desire.

That didn't work out for him.

Turning the water to warm, he gave up fighting it away. Cold water wasn't going to do shit for him, not when Beth had infiltrated his brain. So why bother?

Daryl let the warmer water run over his body and wash away the blood and sweat of the day's heavy work. His hand traveled from his side to his dick and he slowly began to stroke himself, allowing the images of Beth to be exactly where he wanted them to be.

His breathing became heavier as he continued, his hand going faster. He lifted his head up so the water could drench his face. His movements became more shaky and jerky, not much rhythm to them as he got closer. Daryl didn't care. He was doing this as fast as possible while he had the time alone. Daryl ducked his head back down to close his eyes, biting onto his bottom lip to hold back a moan as he climaxed.

He hadn't done something like that in a while. It felt good to get the release, even if he knew that what his body _really _wanted was for it to happen inside of Beth.

This would have to suffice for now.

He swiftly rinsed off the rest of his body with the bottle of soap that was resting in the shower. Daryl turned off the water and dried himself off, picking his clothes off the floor and putting them back on so he could exit.

Beth Greene. That girl was going to be the end of him.


	15. Chapter 15

Daryl had a dilemma that he worked through on his way over to Beth's cell the next morning, the light glow of the sun pouring through the prison windows as he passed them. Once again, he was not able to sleep much, tossing and turning throughout the night in anticipation of the arrival of the morning light.

He felt like he needed to back out of this before it got too painful to do so.

The whole time that Daryl thought about Beth, he had not figured Maggie or Hershel into the equation. There was no doubt in his mind that Hershel would be unhappy about Daryl having his dirty redneck hands all over Beth. He could already see the look on Hershel's face if he found about what had happened between them so far, or the thoughts that Daryl had been having about Hershel's youngest daughter.

And Maggie? She would probably poison his food or something to that effect. There was no way they would accept whatever was between Daryl and Beth.

Because Daryl was not the kind of guy a woman would want to bring home to her family. He never met anyone's family, never wanted to either. He was the kind of guy who would fuck in a drunken haze, leave minutes later, and then never bother to get a number to call the woman who was dumb enough to bring him back to her place. What sane father would want that kind of guy with his young, pure daughter?

He wished again that he was good with communicating. He was shit it. One of the things that he was the worst at.

How ever helpful that was in a situation like this.

He almost turned around and went back as he walked down the hallway to where Beth's cell was. He didn't feel ready to do this, but he knew that he might not ever be so he might as well keep his feet moving before he went in the other direction. Delaying was not going to be the answer to his problems.

_It's just Beth_, he reminded himself.

One would think that he was about to appear in front of a jury after committing a felony or something. He was a ball of nerves. And he was not used to that. No one made him nervous in the way that Beth did. Of course, he was never good with women. Too nervous and too awkward. Another case of the 'say the wrong thing at the wrong time or not say enough' that plagued his life.

His boots fell relatively silent against the floor even as his legs seemed heavier than usual as he got closer to his destination.

Ever since people recovered from the virus that had been passed around, people had gone about hanging sheets over the cells so that it offered more privacy, Beth included in one of those. The sight of the sheet that had been draped across her cell made his skin ripple with goose bumps.

Daryl glanced at some cells as he went by to see who was around and if he was going to need to keep his voice down, not that he talked particularly loud to begin with. That only happened when he was angry. Now he needed to know if he should be careful of what he said because he didn't want anyone else knowing his business. If someone found out about Daryl and Beth, it would spread through the prison like wildfire. And someone seemed to always be lurking around a corner. That's what happened when so many people were confined together on one space. Being alone was not a privilege he could say he had these days.

And part of him wanted to keep Beth a secret. Something that was only his to know about.

But that wasn't fair.

Now the problem was that there were outside obstacles that weighed down on Daryl, telling him that whatever was going on between him and Beth was to be kept quiet under all circumstances. That it shouldn't be going on at all; he shouldn't have allowed it to start. Told him he shouldn't be doing this because he wasn't the man that Hershel would want for his youngest angel and wasn't the man that Maggie would want her sister to be shacking up with.

It all hit him like a brick wall—all the fears that he did not think about yesterday.

People would judge him. The residents here were nice enough but everyone had an opinion. And if the past served as any indicator of what people would think, it wasn't a good sign.

People would talk about him if it got out that Daryl and Beth were…were something. He didn't know what to call it but it didn't matter much at this instance. He could practically hear the whispers now, just like how he heard the hushed voices whenever him and Merle would go somewhere.

_Oh, look. More stupid rednecks up to no good. The fuck do they want? Trying to sell some drugs?  
_

What did he expect? His gruff appearance and ignorant attitude never invited friendly chatter.

Only now the words would be altered to: _What the fuck is _she _doing with _him_? That redneck shouldn't be with her. She's too good for him. She could find someone way better than that redneck asshole._

There he would be. Judged again.

One would think that Daryl would be used to being judged by others by now, but no, he wasn't. He hated it. Wished he could avoid it. Daryl would get his back up every single time, telling himself that he should be just as rude to the people who were being rude to him. The fuck did they know about him?

Daryl didn't get enough time to think before he was before Beth's cell. He pushed the curtain aside, not thinking for the second time that he should have alerted her of his presence before he barged in. He took a step inside, letting the sheet fall back into its original position.

Beth was in the middle of making her bed when he stepped in, pulling up the bedsheets up and adjusting her pillows. Her eyes drifted up, meeting his.

For a moment, the world is lost to him.

For a moment he thought that all of what was going on inside of his head was complete nonsense because he has never felt so _complete_. He came to realize that Beth did that to him every time she looked at him. It was something so simple, so basic, but it could be world-changing for him.

It only reminded him that she _was_ too good. Better. He didn't deserve a woman like her.

Beth was like the sun, in the weird metaphor that it was. She shined bright no matter what. In comparison, Daryl had been stuck in darkness for so long, longer than he could recollect. He was stuck there, trapped in the dark.

"Hi," she smiled.

"Hey," he grimly sighed.

Beth took a second to collect herself, noticing his mood. She tossed the pillows back carelessly, forgetting about making the bed. She looked at him with those pure and innocent eyes of hers a second time around, and Daryl had to remind himself about why he was there in the first place. He didn't need to get sidetracked by her beautiful blue orbs and dark batting eyelashes.

"I wasn't expectin' you this early," she quietly announced, glancing down to her pajamas. They consisted of only a light gray camisole that was tight against her skin, outlining her bra, with black and gray striped long cotton pajama bottoms. He tried not to let his gaze stay too long on how her pajama bottoms were low on one side, showing off the creamy skin of her hip bone that was ever prominent. "I would have changed."

Daryl shrugged it off as he ignored how his pulse started to quicken after one glance at her exposed skin. "No big deal."

Beth stood up straight, about to begin whatever words were on the tip of her tongue, but Daryl refused to hear them. He knew what would happen. The smoothness of her voice and being able to watch as her lips moved with her syllables would surely put him into a trance and he then would not be able to get out what he needed to.

And what he needed to do was numb himself down so he could say what was supposed to be said.

"Your dad wouldn't like this," he stated in a rush before she said anything, believing it to be the truth.

Beth parted her lips, giving him a bewildered stare. "Wouldn't like what?"

Daryl let his gaze plummet down to the ground. "Me. He wouldn't like me, a guy almost twice your age, messin' around with one of the two most precious things he has. Man knows how to use a shotgun, Beth. He'd probably use it on me if he found out."

"That's not true," Beth said in rebuttal. "My dad would never do that."

"And what about your sister?"

Beth narrowed her eyes in confusion. "What about her?"

"I don't know who would be more upset, Hershel or Maggie," he growled out. "I don't see how she would be fine with me, the asshole redneck who is sneakin' around with her younger sister behind her back. It's not like she'd give us her blessing or whatever the hell it is that people give."

Beth shook her head, amused. "Maggie would be fine with it. I know her. She is my sister, after all. I know how she thinks." Beth moved away from her bed and glided towards him. "And my dad would be happy that I have someone. Someone like Glenn is to Maggie."

"I'm not like Glenn," he retorted.

"I know you're not. And I'm not askin' you to be. I want you to be you and I want me to be just who I am. And together we can be whatever that's supposed to be."

Daryl all of a sudden had second thoughts. Beth had a way with words, and could easily convince him into thinking that what was happening between them would be just fine. That everyone would be okay with it.

However, he needed to stop this. Stop pretending like there was nothing wrong with what was transpiring between the two of them. He had to put it an end. And that was purely based on Beth's best interest. He wanted to protect her, protect her from him. Daryl had to put his own selfish needs, wants, and desires aside. Beth deserved better than him. Deserved more than he could offer her.

"It ain't right. You deserve better."

"Daryl, don't be like this. Nothing about this is wrong in any way and I know that you have to feel that way," she said as if she had read his thoughts moments ago. "You have to feel somethin' for me because you kissed me back. Don't give up," she pleaded, trying to make him reasonable.

"You deserve better," he repeated.

He didn't look at her. Couldn't.

Daryl booked out of there after that, practically running someone down who was near Beth's cell when he exited. He didn't look to see who it was. The only thing he was interested in was getting out, getting away from the mess he made of things.

Because Daryl Dixon always screwed things up.

Daryl was unaware that this was what he did to not get hurt. He pushed people away. Pushed and pushed and pushed until they didn't want to be around him. That way, when there was no one close to him, they couldn't hurt him. And he couldn't hurt them. The only person who could do the damage was himself. It was his own form of personal torture. He brought it down onto himself.

Little did he know that by pushing people like Beth away it only hurt him _more._

It didn't help him.

It didn't keep him safe.

And it didn't protect him. Not from anything.

—

After he spent an hour or two meandering around the perimeter of the prison, Daryl was feeling worse than he ever had. He expected to feel shitty from the aftermath of what had been said in Beth's cell, but not as horrendous as he did now. But he had to do the right thing by her. He kept repeating to himself that she was deserving of more than he could give her and that was why he did what he did.

That's his own insecurity. His own doubt. His inability to see that he might be good for her.

Right then he couldn't see past any of that. He was Daryl and she was Beth.

He was damaged.

Broken.

Unfixable.

At least in his mind he was.

Deep down through all the layers, he knew that it wasn't that he was afraid that she was going to hurt him, it was that he knew that _he _could hurt _her_. And he couldn't deal with that knowledge.

Even though he believed that he did the right thing by Beth, he felt the pain in his chest. It was like he had been hit multiple times over. It was way worse than any beating he had ever received as a child. This time it was more emotional than physical pain.

Daryl begrudgingly dragged himself back into the prison with the idea that he would grab his crossbow and head out to check the animal traps that were around the outside of the prison.

Get away, run away, don't feel. The story of his life.

When he got to his cell, he was surprised to see Michonne leaned up against the wall with her arms crossed and one foot on the back wall. She slowly turned her head to him. For a second he panicked and thought that he was in the wrong cell and this one here was not his, only he then noticed his crossbow that rested against his bed.

Daryl gave Michonne a quizzical look.

"What are you doing?" she asked him, not moving from her position.

"Um," he slurred, confused by why she was the one asking him this. "Last time I checked this was where I slept."

"That's not what I mean."

"Can you be a little more specific then?"

Michonne exhaled a breath of air, irritated by his clear lack of understanding. "Don't screw this up for yourself," she advised, very serious, and very stern.

Then he knew exactly what she was talking about. Michonne must have been the person who had been near Beth's cell when he had rushed out of there earlier. It made Daryl shift uncomfortably in the spot that he stood at. Michonne always knew everything. He started to wonder if she somehow had hidden working cameras around the prison that showed her all that was going on. She had intel that no one else did.

Daryl shifted his gaze around, trying not to directly look at Michonne. "How do you know?" he demanded.

"Because I have eyes," she retorted, raising an eyebrow. "And so do you. Only yours watch Beth like a hawk. I know why you do it. It's written all over your face."

And here Daryl had thought he hadn't been obvious about it.

"Nothin' I can do 'bout it now," he grumbled.

"Bullshit," she said back. "You know better than that."

Daryl is taken aback by how upfront Michonne is with him, calling him out like it was nothing. He crossed the room and sat down on the edge of his bed because it became clear to him that Michonne was not going anywhere anytime soon. She had something to say and was not going to let it go until he had heard it.

Maybe he needed to hear it.

Daryl hunched forwards and rested his elbows onto his knees, finding that scrutinizing his rough hands to be so much easier than meeting Michonne's serious glare.

"I'm not good for her," he admitted, though he didn't know why he revealed that to her.

Michonne rolled her eyes and headed for the entry of his cell to walk out. "Oh, _please_. Cut the crap, Daryl. I've been watching you do this whole inner conflict thing for months now. It's not worth it."

Maybe she had a point, but Daryl was not convinced. Beth _did _deserve better than him, even in a world like this where options were slim. That didn't change much. She deserved someone who didn't come with so much baggage that it made his own head spin sometimes. She deserved someone who was damaged like he was.

"That girl is good for you," Michonne continued in a confident tone. "And you are good for her, even if you don't see that yet. You need to get the chance to see it. Screw what everyone else might think. Who cares? No one goes around and passes up a once in a lifetime opportunity like you have, Daryl."

Beth. His once in a lifetime opportunity.

"What do I do?"

Never would he have ever guessed that he would have ended up asking Michonne for advice. Of all the people.

"Fix it."

Daryl dropped his head towards the floor. "I don't know how," he confessed.

Michonne gave a simple answer. "Go to her."

Daryl brought his head back up to look at Michonne. "Now," she further instructed.

He didn't hesitate. He got back on his feet and raced back to find Beth.

_**A/N: This was a hard chapter to write. Necessary, but extremely difficult. But have no fear! Daryl is going to go get his girl :)** _


	16. Chapter 16

Daryl moved swiftly as he maneuvered down the stairs and down the hallway with one thing on his mind. He hoped that Beth wasn't too upset with him for attempting to spare her of getting too close to him and trying to end things between them. He regretted it so much, every word that he had spewed out to her in Beth's cell earlier.

One day he would need to thank Michonne for knocking some much needed sense into him. She was like some of guardian angel who fucking swooped down out of nowhere and put him on the right path when he had tried to stray away.

He promised himself that he was going to find Beth and force himself to lay some of his cards on the table, to tell her exactly what was on his mind and how it concerned him, every stupid worry. No more of his divert around the real issue bullshit.

Beth's cell came back into view, causing Daryl to bunch his hands into fists at his side out of anticipation before letting them relax again. If Daryl had been one to pray he'd be doing that right then because he was going to need all the luck he could get. He pulled the sheet across and his eyes immediately went to Beth, who was lying down on her bed on her side with her arm tucked under her pillow, staring blankly at the floor.

She noticed him, eyes trailing up from the floor to meet his. He gave her a weak smile in hopes that it might help the situation. Beth took her arm out from under the pillow and placed it flat onto the bed and brought herself up, keeping her elbow and forearm on her sheets.

"What are you doin' here?"

The words did not sound angry or malicious. But they did sound upset, and that in turn made Daryl mentally kick himself for being so careless with Beth's feelings before.

Daryl let out a long sigh, shaking his head. "I'm an idiot," he told her.

It was not the best way to start off but he felt the need to let her know that he was aware the status he put himself in a few hours ago.

"Don't say that."

"No, really, I am. I didn't mean—I didn't want you to think—damn it! I don't know what to say," he stammered in a frustrated voice. For once, he would have loved to be able to construct a proper sentence together that would relay how he felt on the inside. It was too new to him that his brain didn't work that way yet. "I don't know how to deal with all this, Beth."

Beth swung her legs around and got up from her bed, keeping close to it. She leaned the back of her head against the metal of the top bunk and crossed one arm over her stomach so that her hand latched onto her other elbow. "Did you mean what you said earlier? That you thought I deserved better and that we shouldn't be doin' this?"

Daryl sighed for a second time, his hands fidgeting at his side with the worn material of his pants. "Meant it when I said it. You do deserve better, but I don't think there is a way for me to give ya up without goin' crazy."

He felt somewhat addicted to this girl, addicted to her presence around him and how she made him feel on the inside.

"Why do think so little of yourself?" Beth asked, eyebrows furrowing in desperate interest. "How could you even think for a second that you don't _deserve_ me? Don't put me on a pedestal, Daryl. It's one of the worst things you could do."

_Why do think so little of yourself?_

Memories flood back to him. All of the bad memories that he had dealt with all throughout his life, all the way from early childhood up until he met the group.

The things that haunted him.

He decided to speak the truth. "Done so much bad stuff in my life. Stuff I regret. You don't know the half of it. If you did, you'd be appalled." He stopped for a brief moment and then added, "My life was never easy and I thought that I could spare you of the details of all of it. Thought I could keep you from bein' hurt. Thought I wouldn't be enough for you."

Beth was not going to have any of that. She stared directly at him, and he is not even sure if she blinked when she opened her mouth to speak. "I'm tellin' you right now that none of that matters. The past is in the past and there's nothin' that anyone can do to change it. You gotta let all that stuff go. It ain't worth it. And you _are_ enough for me! All I need is you just the way you are. We can figure this out together. I know we can. "

"Don't ya think that you're too young for me?" he abruptly questioned her, curious as to how she see saw the age difference to be.

Beth's eyes drifted up to the ceiling and then back to him. He could have sworn that he saw a brief flicker of light in her eyes and a partial smile before she stated, "Age ain't something that worries me, Daryl. Especially not in this world. Everything is different. Haven't you ever heard that if two people have a connection then stuff like age doesn't matter?"

"Age don't matter?" he restated. "People say that but they don't really believe it."

"Oh, really? Can you read minds now?"

He shook his head no.

"Then how could you possibly know what other people think? Or what people might think?"

"What I _think_ is that your dad would have a problem with it," he said again, relaying an inner fear of his.

That fear of not being accepted.

Beth took a few steps closer to him. "He won't have a problem with it. He likes you a lot. It's not like we gotta go around tellin' people our business straight away. And for your information, Daryl Dixon, my mother was fifteen years younger than my dad," she told him. "So even if he didn't like this then he doesn't exactly have a lot of room to argue. But I'm tellin' you that he will be happy. I don't know why you don't believe that."

Beth grabbed ahold of his hand and squeezed. "I didn't expect this, me and you. And now there's too much to lose. I don't wanna fight this. I don't think you want to either."

"I don't," he affirmed.

Beth drew in a long inhale of air before she let it back out, grabbing his other hand in the process. "I ain't like we gotta define anythin' right this minute. Stop your worryin'. All I want is to get to know you, Daryl. Is that a crime?"

No, it wasn't a crime. But the thing is that no one had ever taken the time to get to know him before. People thought that they knew him and they didn't. So hearing that come from Beth was an anomaly.

Beth leaned in and whispered, "I like how I feel when I'm around you."

Yeah. He got the same feeling when he was around Beth.

"Don't give up on this," she said in the same whisper. "Please."

"I won't," he finally said.

Beth inched forward, expecting him to close the distance. Daryl put his hands onto her sides and drew her in, lips crashing against each other. Beth moved her hand to his neck, the other grabbing onto the collar of his shirt. This kiss felt the same as the first one, still breath-taking. Daryl doubted that it would ever feel different than that.

The electric shock that traveled through his body that instant made him partially smile as he worked his lips against Beth's more passionately than the first time. She lightly pushed him back into the wall and pressed her body against his. Daryl ran his tongue along her bottom lip until she let him enter her mouth. She tasted sweet along with a hint of mint from whatever toothpaste she used.

He could get used to that.

He got bolder, flipping them around so that Beth was the one who was pressed into the wall. His hand had a mind of its own because it trailed down the length of her back and pushed up the end of her camisole so that his palm and fingers could feel the skin of her lower back as he pressed her into the wall.

He never really put much thought into how Beth's body seemed to fit against his so nicely. Perfectly. Like it had always been meant to be there.

He removed his lips from her mouth and placed them onto her cheek, her jaw, and then her neck, swirling his tongue on her skin as he kissed his way to the bottom of her neck, an inch above her collarbone. He sucked hard, nipping at the skin, not thinking about the bruise he would end up giving her.

"I missed this."

"Hm," was what he replied with to agree, not really able to form words yet, and not wanting to take his mouth off of her delicate skin.

In the hallway, voices came in their direction.

"Will you take a walk with me? It's nice outside today. It'll be more private."

He pulled away to meet her eyes. Beth's hand reached up and brushed against his jaw, which he leaned into. "Yeah."

—

The world seemed brighter. That's what having Beth by his side did for him—changed his perception.

There was a comfortable silence between them as they walked the perimeter side by side. The air had a crisp autumn smell to it. It was the first time that Daryl noticed the change in color on the trees that were on the outside of the prison, turning from the warm summer green to a light shade of yellow.

There was a breeze that blew through, sweeping Beth's hair back because she took it out of her ponytail to keep her ears warm from the brisk wind, though she claimed it was because he had said he liked her hair down. She had thrown on a clean white sweater to go outside which only accentuated her pale complexion and the brightness of her blonde hair against the sun's rays that beamed down from above.

Like he said, everything was brighter.

He got lost in the thought of why Beth would want to be with him, when she was perfect in every aspect. He then pushed it away, knowing that Beth would not want him to think that way. _No pedestal,_ he tried to remind himself. It would be hard to not place her so high up, so out of reach. He believed that was where she belonged; Beth did not seem to think so.

Those ideas would not be entirely eradicated from his brain but he could at least try to keep them hidden away.

Beth finally broke the silence.

"I wanna ask you somethin'."

"Sure," he replied.

After a day like that one, she could ask all the questions she wanted to.

"Before all of this, did you have anyone? Like a wife or a girlfriend? You don't have to answer that if I'm prying too much."

Daryl knew it was only a matter of time until this question was brought up. He thought back to the inquiry. There was not one point in his life where he ever had a _girlfriend. _One night stands where he left afterwards was the farthest he ever went, never even sleeping at women's place before. He didn't let himself get attached to anyone.

Until now.

"I look like I've ever had either?" Daryl awkwardly questioned back. This was not something he normally talked about. Ever.

"Don't answer a question with a question," she frivolously remarked. "But…not one?"

"No. Why I'm shit at this kind of stuff. I don't know what I'm doin'."

"What stuff?"

He motioned to the two of them. "This. Us."

Beth came to an abrupt halt as they neared the corner of the fence, far from anyone else or the noise from the handful of walkers that were along the fences. She gazed out beyond the fence for a minute before she glanced back over to him with a sparkle in her blue eyes. "I like that," she said with a wide smile that lite up her face. "_Us_."

"Stop," he whined. Most likely he was not very convincing because of the smirk that forced its way onto his face. He couldn't help it; he was happy.

Beth got onto her toes and lightly kissed him before she pulled back away and planted herself onto the ground again. "Never," she whispered.

_**A/N: I just uploaded the first chapter of a new story about Beth and Daryl starting in season 2 called Curiosity because I couldn't wait any longer to post it. So you can go check that out if you'd like. And please tell me what you think about it :) I didn't think there was enough season 2 bethyl fics out there and the inspiration hit me.  
**_

_**On a side note, I had some writer's block with this chapter. I kept pushing off writing it because I couldn't get any words down. But here it is. I'm not one hundred percent happy with it but if I do any more re-rewriting my brain will be fried beyond repair. But I promise you will really like the next chapter!  
**_


	17. Chapter 17

As the weather got colder, Daryl and Beth heated up. For the most part, they sneaked around, going undetected for weeks in a row—that is, by everyone but Michonne. She knew the truth from the beginning but neither Daryl nor Beth were worried about that. Michonne wasn't one to gossip.

"I kinda like being rebellious," Beth exclaimed to him days ago as she dragged him into the empty and dark library by his vest after dinner to get some privacy, kissing him until both of their lips were red and raw.

Beth had gone on to tell him stories about how Maggie had gone through a long rebellious stage when she was a young teenager. Beth told him about how she would sneak out of the house to go to parties or to see a boy who she had claimed was just a friend by climbing out her window to stay out late, only to sneak back in the house when everyone was asleep and it was in the early morning hours.

Beth told him about how sometimes Maggie would shoplift little things like bottles of nail polish and other girl stuff from convenience stores. Maggie tried even smoking—a number of things—in an attempt to be defiant, which did not work out very well because Maggie loathed the way her lungs gave out when she tried to smoke. It kind of surprised him when Beth said that; he never saw Maggie as the type to try all that stuff out. But then again, she had been pissed that her father had married another woman after her mother died, so he guessed he couldn't blame her.

Beth never did any of that stuff. Never had a rebellious phase or had the chance to go through a rebellious streak in her teenage years, and Daryl never saw that in her nature either.

But apparently sneaking around with him into the darker corners of the prison was what Beth deemed as being _rebellious_.

"You're such a badass," Daryl had replied into her neck while he had kissed her in that library after she had made that statement.

He found it endearing how she had squealed at what he said.

A few nights later Daryl was beat. The day had gone by fast, walkers building up around the fences and almost everyone had been outside to help maintain the level of walkers that kept on approaching. Beth had been right by him the whole time, dirty and out of breath from repeated walker kills. He saw the light muscle tone that formed in her arms from being at the fences more.

He was not going to lie, it was hot. Seeing her like that, with the filthy grime all over her and Beth not having a care about it made his body go up in flames so he had to turn away and finish his portion of walkers before he got too excited.

It was late now and he had just got done the last perimeter check by himself. He slowly dragged himself in towards a door that would bring him inside. That was before Beth appeared out of nowhere. She grabbed his hand and pulled him into a dark shadow of the outside of the prison, a place where no one would think to look for them or stumble upon them by accident without Daryl and Beth first being alerted by the noise of other due to the way the walls echoed.

_Perfect way to end a long day._

Beth grabbed onto the top part of his shirt and pulled him against her, and he gladly pinned her between him and the prison wall behind her, dropping his crossbow to the ground in the process. He let out sharp breath, the air cool enough that he could see it as he exhaled.

He enjoyed being this close to her. The moonlight played across her face from the side and he saw every feature. Every faint freckle across her cheeks, every tint of a lighter shade of blue in her eyes, every line in her face when she smiled at him, allowing her pearly white teeth to flash.

Fuck, she's gorgeous.

He lunged forward, mouth attacking hers as he thoroughly outlined every part of her mouth as if he was trying to memorize it. Her hands gripped his collar tighter as he slid his hands down her sides and to her thighs, where he then slid them underneath and picked her up, pinning her into the wall again. Beth's thin legs immediately wrapped around his waist.

For being so skinny she sure had strong thighs; a tease to him.

His mind went to other places—like Beth naked and underneath him as those thighs clenched onto him. They had not gone that far yet. They hadn't even taken off any articles of clothes but that was good, for once. They agreed on taking things slow.

But the thing is that right then all Daryl could see, touch, feel, and breathe was Beth. Taking things slow did not seem to be working out the easiest, for either of them that is. Because Beth dove her hand into his long hair and pulled tight against the strands as he dug into her hips with his fingers and drew unique patterns on her neck with his mouth and tongue.

He mildly shoved against her again, in desperate need of some friction. It was not rough at all but it was enough for Beth let out a small sigh into his ear that bordered on the sound of a moan.

And _fuck _he was a goner.

He was lost in her world.

It was only when they heard the sound of two people walking towards the area that they were hidden away in that Daryl tore himself away from her and dropped Beth firmly back onto the ground as he reached to grab his crossbow. She grabbed his hand and weaved them through the outside prison walls that broke off at various points and led to newer, darker places that they would make a mental note of to come back to one night in the future.

Beth giggled as she turned back to make sure that they were alone again and whoever had been out and about around the prison had not come in the direction she had guided them in.

Okay, so maybe he did like this whole sneaking around thing. It was interesting. Kept him on his toes.

"That was close," she breathed out. "We might need to get more creative next time."

Next time.

He was fortunate that there was going to be a next time.

Beth pushed him into another wall and kissed him on the lips for a few seconds before she turned around on the heels of her boots and ran off to get inside before someone came looking for her. "I'll come find you tomorrow," she called back to him, still keeping her voice quiet.

Daryl leaned his head back on the cold wall and watched her leave, her long legs moving fast to get inside and out of the air that was now much colder than when they were pressed into each other.

He breathed in that same chilly late fall air, around mid-November as Beth believed, and held it in his lungs for a few seconds before he let it back out.

How did he get to be so lucky?

—

Daryl was in Beth's cell because hers was near the end of the row, with no one on either side of her so it offered up more privacy when they didn't feel like going somewhere else; when they needed to attack each other's mouths right then and there and could not wait a second longer to go someplace different, especially out into the windy and rainy weather Georgia had been experiencing in the last few days.

There was a constant rainstorm going on outside, which didn't bother anyone because it seemed to keep the walkers at bay. No one knew why walkers stopped showing up at their doorstep when the air was filled with thunder and lightning and downpours of rain, but they did. Maybe it was the noise of the loud thunder that confused their one track brains into thinking food was elsewhere. Or maybe the sound of the rain overshadowed any noise that the group made at the prison, making the prison seem invisible to the rotten bastards.

Like he gave a fuck why. It didn't really matter. All that mattered was that none of them had to be outside in the pouring rain as they tried to fight off massive amounts of walkers that threatened the fences.

No, instead Daryl got to be in Beth's cell with the sheet pulled across the cell entry, in her bed and on top of her, kissing her lips until they were red and swollen, much like his own at that point.

He knew he would never get tired of that.

A loud crack of thunder came from overhead, startling Beth. "Never really liked the thunder," she explained her sudden jolt.

A few seconds later more lightening came, making the room brighter for a fraction of a second. Daryl saw Beth's face even better when the lightening flashed through the windows as rain pounded against them. There were a few candles on the far table that had been lite, not to be romantic or anything like that, only to be able to see since the sky was so dark and it was not like they had electricity at the prison.

But then again, there kind of was a romantic vibe to it. Daryl didn't mind that.

"Never really liked the lightening part either," she admitted, biting her lip. "I used to crawl into bed with Maggie when was younger because it scared me."

He smirked down at her, pushing a few strands of unruly hairs out of her face. "You're in bed with me."

"I am," she smoothly cooed. "And I'm not scared. You make me feel safe."

He loved that he could provide that for her; the feeling of safety and security in his arms. He dipped his head back down to more delicately brush his nose on her jawline before he pressed his lips onto them.

All was great until he did something stupid.

The usual thing that happened to him—ruining something good.

Beth brought her hands onto the back of his shirt and let the descend until they were at the end, hands pushing underneath the frayed edges of his long sleeved flannel shirt, and dipped her hands underneath. The soft pads of her fingers rested at the base of his spine, threatening to go further up his torn up back.

Daryl reached behind and grabbed her wrists and pinned them down at her sides before he even realized that he had done it. Damn. He was so used to keeping them hidden. He would always swat women's hands away when they tried to get underneath his shirt or his vest. He had never meant to do the same to Beth, it was simply a habit. One that was ingrained into him.

"Sorry," he apologized, letting go of the grasp he had on her wrists, which three fingers had ironically been touching the scar across her left one.

He felt embarrassed about his strong adverse reaction.

"Daryl," she whispered. "Look at me."

He did.

Beth's hands cupped his face as she ran her thumbs across his check tenderly. "You don't have to hide them, Daryl. Not from me. They don't define you. They don't define who you are. And you don't need to keep them from me."

And _wow _is that not the best thing he has ever been told in his life.

That Beth Greene always knew exactly what to say to him.

He stared into her eyes momentarily, too shocked to say anything back. She must have felt one of the scars on his lower back and made the connection.

With a sigh, he got off of her and swung his legs around the side of the bed so his feet were planted on the floor and he sat up, keeping his back facing Beth. He mustered up the courage to let his fingers undue the buttons of his shirt. He shrugged off his shirt and let it fall back onto the bed. He felt bare, naked, raw to the core. No one but him had ever seen his scars, not even his own brother.

Sharing this with Beth was big for him.

Huge.

Massive.

Words could hardly express the enormity of what he did in that moment.

And it might just be one of the bravest things he had ever done in his entire existence up until this point in time.

His shoulders cave in at first, slightly nervous about this and slightly uncomfortable that his biggest secret was now revealed and on display for Beth to see with her innocent eyes. Now she would see the darkness of his past, of his childhood. She would understand why he was bad with the whole human connection and human contact thing.

He hated the disfigurements that were left over on his back, his constant reminder of a terrible childhood that left him afraid to be close to people. Because when the people who were supposed to love you and care for you instead disregard for your well-being and write you off as nothing, physically and mentally and emotionally abuse you, that does not put you in the best position to become a good person. You can't be normal after that shit.

And Daryl was anything but normal.

That uncomfortable feeling that put pressure on his chest went away by Beth's calming touch. Her hand trickled over his back with the faintest movements. He felt her finger trace the outline of one of the many scars that riddled his back from the beatings of a leather belt that tore up his skin.

He closed his eyes as her warm lips suddenly brushed over his skin, over another one of his hideous scars. Her kisses trailed down the length of the scar, forcing him to swallow hard, shocked by how good it felt.

"They are a part of you," she murmured onto his skin. "Don't be ashamed of them."

Daryl tilted his head back in pleasure as Beth's lips worked up to his shoulder as her fingers explored the new territory of his exposed back. He could feel the breaths that was being expelled out of her mouth as her lips danced on his skin.

More lightning struck and thunder clapped through the sky, but neither of them paid any attention to the storm that was raging outside.

Beth stopped and brought herself up so she could rest her weight onto her knees. Beth brought her arms up so that they were brought over his shoulders and she wrapped her arms around him, forearms crossing over the top of his chest as she pressed her body into his back. She rested the side her head against his own, rubbing her cheek on his. He turned to kiss her, a reassuring kiss that told him that Beth was not afraid of the scars that he had or the past that plagued him. She would take him how he was and care for him no matter what.

He didn't have to hide.

**_A/N: I can't believe this story hit 200 followers! It's mind-blowing to me. I am so grateful for everyone who follows, favorites, reviews, and reads!_**


	18. Chapter 18

Winter had officially hit.

The weather was not too bad. It was cold but it was not bone chilling and that made more animals stick around for Daryl to hunt.

Mother Nature cut them a break this winter because she was so ecstatic that there was no more pollution and destruction going on to her Earth since almost everyone was dead. So instead of freezing them out, she spent her time making repairs to that fucking ozone layer everyone was always talking about and minded her own business as they rest of them tried to survive through the winter season.

Mother Nature would not take her wrath out on them this winter. She already killed off ninety nine percent of the population of humans so that she could get things restored, balance them back out. He guessed that they were deserving of it, asking for it. Humans pushed the limits of the Earth too far and Mother Nature pushed back, fought back hard, furious that they had all been so selfish and greedy and disregarded the health of the planet they had been given to live out their lives on.

Yeah, Mother Nature had enough of that shit.

They should have all recycled, used solar or wind power instead of drilling into the Earth for oil, kept pollution out of the oceans, prevented massive soil erosion, stopped cutting down trees until the majority of all the rainforests were gone.

They didn't.

And they all paid the costly price.

They had slowly destroyed their planet and now Mother Nature destroyed them, the very beings that started this whole mess.

Mother Nature was the one laughing now. She wiped out the majority of humans, kept the animals safe from the virus, and watched as her planet began to take back over.

Mother Nature was cruel, but justified in her actions.

But this winter was not bad, and for that Daryl is damn grateful.

However, they were in need of stocking up on extra food and warmer clothes so Daryl was headed out on a run today with some other members of the group. Since Maggie was no longer able to go due to her pregnancy, Sasha had suggested that Beth go instead.

Daryl was not too pleased about that.

He would much rather her stay at the prison where he knew that she would be safe. But Beth jumped at the chance to go, so Daryl bit his tongue and agreed on the condition that she not wander far from him when they were out.

It was a long car ride to get to the store. About three hours north. He didn't mind it because Beth was strapped in beside him, gazing off into the distance with her elbow on the window, watching the trees and fields that they passed.

They made it to the store in good time. As they all filed out of the car, Daryl had a flashback of the last big run they went on. They lost Zach and the run had been a complete disaster. He won't lie, it gave him a bad feeling, made him on edge. They were going to do triple checks of every single step they had planned out. They had to do everything in their power to prevent another day like the last big run from happening.

Not now. Not today. Not when Beth was with him.

He wouldn't lose her.

Daryl would die before that happened.

"Stay close," he reminded her for the thousandth time as they got closer to the entrance of the store.

_Nothing bad will happen. _

"I won't stray far," she breathed. "Promise."

To the others it would seem like Daryl was keeping watch over the newbie to their runs. But all he was doing was ensuring that the best thing in his life didn't get jumped by a walker. He needed to be sure that he could keep an eye on her to keep her safe. That's all he really wanted to do—his life purpose—to keep Beth Greene safe no matter what.

At all costs.

Even if the cost was his life.

It was a weird feeling, knowing that he would die for someone else. It was powerful.

And he would do it for Beth. Without any hesitation. Even if that sounded like some stupid Shakespeare tragedy.

_I'm not scared. You make me feel safe._

Beth's words came back to mind and relaxed Daryl. Everything would be _fine._

(He had been trying optimism out lately)

Being around Beth so much had that effect on him.

They got inside of the store, Daryl going in first with the bright flashlight in hand and crossbow in the other. There were noises of growling and dragging of feet, not much, but enough for him to hold up his hand to alert the others to stop moving and to get ready for the walkers to come their way. He took a quick look back to make sure that Beth was still strategically placed in between Tyreese and Michonne before he banged the metal of his crossbow onto a nearby exposed white pipe that ran down from the ceiling.

He aimed and got ready, along with everyone else.

It was simple, actually. Eight walkers came out from different aisles, spread out so all of the group members have some space for the kill. Daryl took down two back to back while he saw Michonne slice off a head, which then went rolling in the opposite direction. He caught how Beth stuck his hunting knife right in between a walker's two eyes. In the moment, he was proud. He taught her well.

He still didn't like her getting so close to the walker, though.

—

"Look what I found," Sasha exclaimed, holding up four boxes of red, green, and white sets of ornaments. "Got them from the back room."

Beth rushed over to examine the packages. "None of them are even broken."

"And I'm pretty sure I saw a menorah back there, too. I know I few people back at the prison celebrate Hanukkah." Sasha looked to be quite pleased with herself. "We might actually get to celebrate this year."

"Wow," is all Beth said.

Sasha smiled and laughed. "You know, every year after our mom died, Tyreese and I would drive all the way to Massachusetts from Florida to visit our aunt for Christmas. Tyreese would drag me out into the woods in the freezing cold weather and in the snow for hours trying to find a—" Sasha put up her fingers to do air quotes "—_perfect_ tree. We would pass hundreds of all these trees that were around and he could never find a single one that he liked until he came across _the one_."

"Sounds like fun to me," Beth replied.

Sasha shrugged one shoulder and grinned. "It was. I hated it at the time because my eyes were frozen and I couldn't feel my legs. But…it's a nice memory."

"Maybe we can make more nice memories," Beth added, flashing a smile.

"Yeah, maybe. I'll go load these into the truck before I forget."

Sasha slipped the boxes into her bag and went off to go find Tyreese and to go grab a new unused bag from one of the cars to put more products in.

"Maybe we will have to enlist Tyreese to take down another tree this year," Beth said to Daryl.

He hadn't listened. His mind was still on the previous thing she had said, the one about making more nice memories.

_Nice memories. _

More memories

More nice memories with Beth.

He didn't have any good holiday memories. He only remembered a handful of times when he was very young that his ma put a tree up in their small house and decorated it. His old man would complain that the lights sucked up all the electricity as he watched the TV for hours on end. Several times he had shot at the ornaments on the tree for target practice when he was drunk off his ass and his ma stopped putting one up after that incident. After she died, not a word was spoken about Christmas except curses from his dad about the 'motherfucking elf and reindeer commercials' that didn't stop playing.

When Merle was around and not in juvie he would get Daryl the hell out of that shit hole and they would escape into the woods together, where they would hunt for a few days and stay out in the wilderness camping. Away from the noise and away from the bullshit of their father.

That was about as good as his memories go for Christmas.

Daryl felt the pressure of Beth tenderly squeezing his hand. She must have known what he thought in that moment, she always seemed to be able to read his mind. No one else was around to see the exchange between them. He wished they were. He wanted them all to know that Beth was his.

He kept that to himself. Probably just a moment of insanity.

"I'm gonna go look for some of the things Maggie told me to keep an eye out for. Baby stuff. I think she's getting the urge to start to nest," she laughed. "I guess all expectin' mothers do. Even if they are livin' in a prison during the apocalypse."

"Just—"

"Keep close," Beth imitated his voice. "I know, Daryl. I will be right over there. Alright? No need to worry."

He reluctantly grunted and watched her go into another aisle where Glenn was.

Daryl perused through the aisles and picked up anything he thought would be of value to the group. His bag is almost full twenty minutes later and they were all about to get ready to leave, already heading for the door to get out of there before their good luck ran out, when he stumbled upon something on a shelf.

Condoms.

Part of him knew he should have them to be on the safe side but the other part made him think that he didn't want it to seem like he expected anything.

He did a quick glance down the aisle he was in to make sure that he was alone, then Daryl picked them up and stashed them away into the bag that he carried. Better to be prepared than to not be. It was the responsible thing to do, he told himself. He just wouldn't tell Beth about it. It's not like he had to go wave condoms in her face to let her know that he had them.

—

They go off course by a few miles on the way back and raid some houses that had been left untouched since they were down a dirt road and hidden back in the woods. Whoever lived there must of had a big chunk of change because the houses are large, fenced in, and had a lot of property. Daryl, Beth and Michonne took one house and the others took a second neighboring one. Daryl felt a bit awkward at first, because _hello,_ no one was going to bring up the fucking elephant in the room.

Michonne knew about Daryl and Beth, and Daryl and Beth knew that Michonne was aware of them secretly being together. He was sure he was the only one who felt weird about the three of them being stuck together, the one who thought about the knowledge they all shared. Michonne and Beth went about digging through the house without a single sideways glance, focused on the job they had to do. There was no look from Michonne that said 'I know what you've been up to and I know you followed my advice'.

Beth went up the staircase that was off to the side of the house and Daryl followed a few steps behind her. The idea of an entire level of the house being between them was not one he was fond of. He wouldn't be able to get up the steps in time if something happened. Because shit happened. Walkers came out of now where. People were unprepared. People got bit.

_Don't be paranoid._

He tried not to be until the smell invaded his nostrils when they got to the landing of the upstairs. Beth's hand promptly smacked over her face as she covered up her nose. She choked out, "Oh my God. Where is that coming from?"

The scent was nothing short of disgusting. Smelled of death and decay. The kind of smell that stayed with you, one that would never be forgotten.

He fucking hated that repulsive odor.

Beth coughed because of the strength of the smell and Daryl fought back the urge to do the same. He moved down the narrow hall that had framed family pictures lining the walls (which he and Beth both tried not to look at) until he got to the very end of the hall.

Daryl yanked open one of the big windows that was in the back of the hallway, a window seat right below it. They desperately needed some fresh air in the house, even if they would only be there for no more than ten more minutes rummaging through the items. The chilly wind blew in without any trouble, the curtains blowing back, forcing the December weather into the house. The outside air made it more bearable to breathe.

Daryl stood in front of the door where the smell was coming from. He was positive that it was this one due to it being the place where the smell was strongest out of all the doors they passed on the way to the end of the hall. He didn't really want to know what was behind the door, but figured he should take care of it if there were walkers in there in case someone stumbled across the house sometime in the future and decided to stay the night.

It was the least he could do.

He motioned for Beth to turn the knob of the door for him. She slowly turned the door handle until it was unlocked and cracked open. She stepped back behind him and Daryl kicked the door the rest of the way open and he aimed his crossbow, ready to shoot an arrow.

That would not be necessary.

He wanted to block her from seeing but it was too late. Beth saw. She stared dead ahead into the room. Daryl turned his head back to look inside the room again, the room where the horrendous smell leeched out of. There was a family in there. Two little girls and a mother who were lined up on a king sized bed in white dresses, the mother in between the two now very decayed girls with her own decayed and bony arms around the small children. A man, who he assumed was the father, sat against the wall slouched over. Old brain matter and blood was smeared on the wallpaper behind him, and a gun was on the carpet next to his decomposed corpse.

The woman and children must have been poisoned. It was less messy that way.

The father must have waited until they were asleep and his wife and children stopped breathing, their hearts stopping as well, until he turned a gun on himself. There was nothing left in the world for him to live for once his family had moved on to a better place.

They took the easy way out.

Escaped the madness.

Daryl grabbed the doorknob and slammed the door shut so Beth could not see inside anymore. The few seconds that she had were enough. Probably too much.

"Sorry you had to see that," he muttered. He should have been better prepared for something like that. He should have thought to send Beth in the other direction before he took a look inside the room instead of exposing her to the grim and harsh reality of what had gone down in there most likely months ago.

Surprisingly, Beth smiled up at him, the look in her eyes unchanged. "It would have happened sooner or later." She inched closer to put a hand on his cheek. "You don't need to protect me from the kind of stuff that is in that room."

He wanted to. Daryl wanted to preserve some sort of innocence in Beth. But in this world that was damn near impossible.

"I'm not a china doll. Seeing something like that isn't going to break me."

"Okay," he replied, believing her. "Let's check the other rooms."

"Preferably downstairs," Beth added, still bothered by the decayed smell that lingered in the air, seeped into the walls and surroundings.

"You go. I'm gonna check up here real quick."

Beth agreed and headed back down the steps. Daryl went through the rest of the upstairs, going through four bedrooms and one office, gathering a collection of clothes and some other various household items.

In in last room something caught his eye. He turned to go back out the door to go regroup with Beth and Michonne when he saw a white jewelry box that was open on the dresser. There was a silver chain necklace with a silver heart attached at the bottom inside the jewelry box that was left opened. It was the only necklace that wasn't gold in the entire thing. Looked expensive. Also looked like it had barely been worn. It was simple and elegant and Daryl thought that it would be something that Beth would like.

Hopefully. He didn't know anything about jewelry and what women liked.

Daryl didn't think twice about it when he took the necklace and put it into his pocket before he shut the box and walked out of the room.

**_A/N: I posted another Bethyl oneshot today (smut, of course) so go read it if you would like ;)  
_**

**_ I'm going to be honest here and say that I'm pretty sure I edited this chapter but I'm not one hundred percent certain that I did. And I'm too lazy to go back and reread again. So I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that_ _I already read through it a second time and forgot to mark that I did :)_**


	19. Chapter 19

_**A/N: I feel the need to address something really quick in light of the second oneshot I posted. I have an anon (possibly multiple ones, I am not entirely sure if it is the same one or not) who has commented on every story that I have written that Beth is not a virgin in the show, and seems to be quite agitated that I portray her as a virgin. Now, let be explain. Do I know if Beth is a virgin on the show? No, I don't know. Do I know if she is not a virgin? Again, no. There has never been a clear and definitive answer given to viewers on the status of Beth's virginity. One cannot simply say that the way she kissed Zach proves beyond debate that she is not a virgin. However, these are ****my**** stories and I am the one who is writing them. I see it fit that I portray her in that way. I am sorry if that bothers you. If you do not like it then please don't read it.  
**_

_**I just wanted to get that out of the way and known to everyone, specifically the anons who keep telling me that I am wrong about the way I write Beth. **_

_**Okay, now onto the chapter!**_

_**—**_

Every touch was a gift to him.

Daryl was in Beth's cell again after he got back from checking the traps outside the prison, bringing in five rabbits from the traps and one that he happened to come across while extracting the animals out of the metal for Karen and Carol to cook dinner with.

Daryl worked his mouth against Beth's in a way they had both gotten familiar with. He picked her up and set her down on top of the table that sufficed as a desk in her cell, and she giggled into his mouth as he did.

He loved that.

He couldn't get enough of her. Ever.

Daryl's hands slid up Beth's thighs, pulling her closer to him so her legs were on either side of his in a more intimate position. He pushed the dress she wore up three-quarters of the way up her thighs so that the material of the dress collected on top of his knuckles. His thumbs slid to her inner thigh as he pushed the dress up, and he is pretty fucking sure that he whimpered into her mouth when he felt how warm her skin was against the pads of his thumbs.

"Daryl," she sighed when he kissed down the side of her neck.

"Hey, Beth, could you help—"

Daryl's eyes flew open as he retracted his hands from Beth and jumped back. Maggie stood in the entry way of the cell with the sheet rested on the back of her hand from how she had moved it away to get into Beth's cell. Her eyes were wide, looking like she had seen a ghost because she knew where on Beth Daryl had his hands. Beth pulled her dress back down her legs and stared back over at Maggie, who was alternating her gaze between the two of them, mouth part of the way open like she wanted to say something but could not form the words.

He had never been so freaked out.

They had been caught. And _o__f course_ it had to be by Beth's older sister. And_ of course_ Daryl had been feeling Beth up when she walked in.

Daryl felt fucking embarrassed as all hell.

"Um," Maggie slurred. "I, uh, sorry! I should have…I didn't think that…I was going to...Beth, could you help me within somethin' real quick? I won't keep you long. I just...I need..."

Maggie never finished her sentence. Beth shot Daryl a glance before she hopped down from the table, adjusting her dress again, and walked over to her sister. Beth gave him another reassuring look before they both exited her cell and he heard their footsteps as they walked down the hallway.

Daryl put both his hands onto his face, closing his eyes. What an awful way for Maggie to find out about the two of them. He could only imagine what must have gone through her head when she saw Daryl's hands on Beth's inner thighs and him kissing her neck.

He was fucked.

—

Daryl didn't know what to do with himself. He waited for Beth to get back, and ended up pacing back and forth in her cell with sweaty palms and a racing heart from anxiety, but Maggie was keeping her longer than she said she would have. And that made him worried. He bit at his fingernails as he paced, a nervous habit of his that he was never able to break. There were a ton of possibilities that ran through his head. Of course it could go one of two ways, but the look of shock on Maggie's face when she walked in on them made his mind go to strange places.

Maybe Maggie was preforming electroshock therapy on Beth because she was under the impression that Beth had to be crazy to be with him and she was trying to rewire Beth's brain to make her normal again.

Fuck. He thought the weirdest shit sometimes.

So instead of waiting around for some more impossible scenarios to play out in his head, Daryl decided to go out and work the fences by himself for a little while and try to clear his mind. He easily got outside, swinging the door open and grabbing a sharp pole to kill the walkers with. He headed down to the fences, where the walkers were being abnormally loud as he approached. Or maybe he was only perceiving it to be that way because the walkers were competing with the noise inside his own head. But, seriously, there were some loud mouth walkers that were biting at the fence that day, clawing at the metal to try and get to him. Sounded like some fucking pterodactyl screeching.

Daryl took some of the fear he had bottled up inside regarding the outcome of Beth's family knowing about them out on the walkers, throwing his weight into the jabs that he delivered to the walker's heads and through the eyes. Halfway through Daryl alternated to taking the walkers down with the hunting knife that he had secured at his waist, choosing a more direct way to end the walkers. They were all leaned up against the fence, faces pressing into the metal anyways so the knife made more sense since there was a clean shot available. Plus, it didn't get as much blood all over him. Beth didn't like it when he came in covered, so he always tried his best not to be smeared with blood.

It wasn't long until Daryl saw Hershel move down the pathway to him, and he felt the sudden urge to run in the other direction. He wasn't ready for this. A horrible feeling took over him as Hershel got closer. Daryl was apprehensive about hearing what Beth's father was going to say to him. He must know about Beth and him by now, there was no way that he didn't.

Daryl stopped jamming the knife though the holes in the fence and wiped the blood onto his pants. He picked up the item they used for sharpening weapons up from the inner fence and started to sharpen the end of the knife he had been killing the walkers with, blindly predicting that he might need to continue taking out his emotions on the walkers after Hershel was done talking to him.

The idea struck him that maybe Daryl could plead his case to Hershel, let him know that he didn't mean any harm by Beth and that he had deep feelings for her, ones he never felt for anyone else in his life. Maybe he could explain that Beth was his safety net, his safe harbor that he came back to time and time again, the person he could always count on to make him feel better about anything, even himself. Maybe then Hershel would understand, even if he hated the idea of Daryl and Beth being together.

He would see that Daryl _needed_ Beth.

Needed her like he needed the oxygen in his lungs.

And all he would have to do would be to say those words to Hershel, communicate them and then it would be known. Done and over with. But then there is a voice in the back of his head that told Daryl to be patient and hear the man out first.

_Try not to jump to conclusions._

"Hello, Daryl," Hershel greeted, pulling up next to him as Daryl stopped sharpening the blade.

This was going to be horrible. And that thought made Daryl swallow hard, feeling uneasy. He was having the whole 'meet the father' thing right now, only he already knew Hershel and had been sneaking around the prison with his daughter right under his nose. It all of a sudden seemed like such a bad idea to him, the sneaking around part. Kind of seemed like a slap in the face. Hershel probably thought that Daryl was a cunning and underhanded bastard for doing that without anyone's knowledge.

"So, I'm guessin' you know why I'm out here," he continued.

Yes, he knew.

Hershel adjusted himself so that he stood up straighter, which he could do now thanks to the prosthetic leg he had been using for the past month. "I want to tell you somethin'. When I found out that Maggie was in a relationship with Glenn, I didn't like it. I didn't think that he would ever be good enough for my little girl. You see, every father thinks that way. No man will ever be good enough for his daughter. That is, until one comes along and proves them wrong. Glenn did that." Hershel stopped there and gazed out beyond the fences, taking a breath. "Now, about Beth—"

Here it came. Hershel would tell Daryl that he was not good enough for Hershel's youngest daughter and that he should stay as far away from her as he could.

There was a pain in Daryl's chest that got worse with the passing seconds. He slouched his shoulders over and sharpened the blade of the knife again so he could avoid eye contact, preparing himself for the inevitable.

"I know what you are most likely thinkin' right now, and let me tell you that is not the case at all," Hershel said, catching Daryl's full and undivided attention. "Daryl, you're a good man and I would be honored if you would keep my Bethy safe."

Wait. Had he just hallucinated Hershel's voice?

Daryl's now wide eyes snapped over to Hershel's in utter confusion. "What?"

"You heard me correctly," he urged, smiling. "Like I said before. No man was ever gonna be good enough for Beth. Until one was. Until one _is_."

Daryl's mind failed to work in that moment. He was unable to say anything or do anything because he was shocked all the way down to his core. _Until one is._ He was going to need to let that one sink in a bit longer before he could grasp the full meaning behind what Hershel had said to him.

_Until one is._

"I said it once, and I'll say it again. You're a good man, son," he said, putting a strong hand onto Daryl's shoulder. It was the first time anyone ever called him _son_. "All I ask is that you take care of her. Treasure her."

Daryl didn't know what to say. This was the complete opposite of what he had expected, only further proving that Beth had been right all along. Her father _did_ approve. He had no problem with Daryl.

"I will," he breathed out, still in what he believed to be utter shock. "Already do."

All this time Daryl had been petrified by the thought of not being accepted, and yet here Hershel was, before him with open arms, telling him that he was a good man and to take care of Beth. The exact words out of Hershel's mouth that would forever be burned into his memory were _I would be honored if you would keep my Bethy safe. _

Honored?

By Daryl being with Beth?

He knew it wasn't a cruel trick on him because Hershel never lied. He meant what he said.

"Now, how about we go back inside," Hershel suggested. "I'm sure Beth is waiting for you to come back to her. Maggie had to practically restrain her from coming back to you. But I said that I wanted to have a word with you first. To let you know that everything is fine between us all, even Maggie."

Daryl nodded, picking up the sharpened pole that he had been using in the beginning to kill the walkers with so he could bring it back up with and return it to the rest of them. He gripped really tight onto the pole until it hurt, just to make sure that this was not all a dream.

"I would have been a fool to have tried and kept you two apart," Hershel declared as they walked. "And I'm not a fool. I could see in Beth's eyes how much she cares for you. I would never take that away from her. That would be heartbreaking for everyone involved. And I would never take her away from you, either."

Daryl took the time and let that sink in. Daryl had been the fool in this situation by not believing it when Beth told him that no one was going to have any issue with them being together. She had been right all along.

Daryl had a flashback to when he was younger, remembering how his mother stooped down to his level when he could not have been more than five years old and told him that when he was older that he was going to realize that the woman is always right, no matter what, and that he should always believe in their first instincts. Women could sense things better than men.

Damn. His ma had also been right all along.

"Should have said somethin' to you to begin with," Daryl said, before he lost the nerve to explain. "I didn't ever think—"

"I know why you didn't," Hershel told him, looking him in the eyes as he stopped Daryl from saying anything further. "You don't have to feel bad about that. I understand the reservations you had about me knowing. Don't feel like you need to explain yourself to me, Daryl, it's unnecessary. Just know that any doubts you had didn't need to be there in the first place."

Daryl thought back to all the time he spent mulling over how Hershel and Maggie would feel about this. It had been such a waste of time. There had been nothing to be afraid of all the time he spent trying to convince himself that there was, that he would not be accepted or wanted by her family members. That he wasn't good enough.

He guessed he got a damn good reality check.

Daryl smiled to himself as Hershel and him made their way up towards the prison. All he thought about was getting back to Beth and kissing her like there was no tomorrow; just because he could. Because everything felt _right_.

He felt like he was on top of the world.

—

It was dark out now, and Beth had gone off with Karen and Lizzie to help with the bedtime stories for the younger children up in the library. She promised that she would come by his cell later and they could talk some more.

_I told you,_ she had bragged to him as she threw her arms around him after he came back into the prison with Hershel hours ago. And as he thought back to it now, he only smiled again because the day had turned into this amazing one. He somehow ended up with most everything he ever wanted—acceptance, family, a home. And maybe love was thrown in the mix, too.

Did he love Beth?

He couldn't answer that one yet. But if he wasn't, he was sure on his way to that.

The best part was that it didn't terrify him at all.

Daryl had a cigarette lit outside in the cool weather when Carol came around the corner with a wide grin on her face. She nudged him with her shoulder, leaning beside him up against the prison wall. "So," she started. "Beth, huh?"

"Stop," he complained in his usual response when Carol would tease him about something. But this time he secretly kind of liked that Beth was being acknowledged. It told him that Carol knew the story about Beth and Daryl, which the whole prison probably knew about by now, too.

He didn't mind that so much anymore.

"What?" Carol laughed. "I'm happy for you. I sort of had the feeling that somethin' was goin' on."

He threw her a doubtful look before he brought the cigarette back up to his lips and inhaled. "Oh, really? How'd you know that?"

"Well, for starters, Beth would come down to help with dinner with a smile on her face. It was adorable. And then I would catch her smiling some more at whatever she was thinking about. I remembered that. Used to do it myself. I could recognize that kind of smile from anywhere. So I knew that there must be a guy she really liked that was in the picture," Carol told him, seemingly proud of herself for spotting the signs. "And then there was you who wasn't so sullen and grumpy all the time. That was kind of a tip-off. I thought maybe the two were connected. Looks like I was correct. I've got some pretty nice detective skills, don't ya think?"

"A real Nancy Drew," he remarked, nudging her on her shoulder like she had done to him a few moments ago.

Carol let out another laugh. "Well, I don't know about that. But what I do know is that Beth really likes you. She talks about you a lot."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Always finds a way to work your name into a conversation without even realizing she did it. It's very cute. That's another way I could tell that maybe somethin' was happenin' between you two. I kept waiting for someone to spill the beans."

Daryl hide a smirk from Carol. It was nice to hear that when they were apart, Beth thought a lot about him like how he thought about her constantly when they were not together.

"You've had her heart for a while now, Daryl," she said to him. "And I'm kinda obligated to tell you that I'll hit you with a shovel and bury you alive if you ever hurt her," she joked.

Daryl rolled his eyes. "Don't eye any shovels. I won't hurt her."

He was sure of that now.

"I know you won't," she seriously clarified. "But I figured that I would say it since I don't think Maggie will. You need to get the usual full 'meet the family' deal. The inclusive package, threats and all. But you never know. Maybe those pregnancy hormones will kick in and Maggie will threaten you six ways from Sunday. I bet that girl can pack a real punch, too."

Daryl breathed out smoke in Carol's direction, making her back away and laugh at him for trying to get her to stop talking. "Yeah, yeah, I know. I'll take care of her, don't you worry."

"And more importantly, Beth will take care of_ you_," Carol insisted. "She makes you a better person, Daryl Dixon."

Daryl breathed in some fresh air, throwing the cigarette to the ground and put it out with his boot. "I know she does."


	20. Chapter 20

"Maggie's baby will be here next Christmas," Beth whispered to him. "It's weird to think about. I'm gonna be aunt come the summer. And Maggie is gonna be a mom."

They were back in his cell, Daryl lying down on the bed and Beth sitting next to him, facing his way with her knees brought up to her chest and her arms wrapped around them. The day of celebration was over with and everyone was calming down for the evening. The dinner that Daryl had tracked down early that morning was done with, and had been filled with jokes and laughter and happiness. How they had gotten to the point where that was possible, he didn't know. Didn't care much either. All that mattered was that people were able to sit back and relax for a day and enjoy everyone's company to celebrate something that they did in the old world, where their lives had been more normal and the dead were not walking around.

It had been a good day. Everyone was happy and filled with excitement, with joy. The children ran around the prison with smiles on their faces and cheer in their hearts. They decided as a group that they would all celebrate the holidays all on the exact same day since there was no way to tell what the actual day of the year was.

Now it was late, and Carol had rounded up the children into the library for some stories, and a majority of the adults went as well. Daryl and Beth skipped out to get some alone time together, same as Glenn and Maggie had done.

"You worried about it?"

Beth shrugged. "The birth is a ways off but I can't help but be a bit nervous about it. But I think everything will be fine. It has to be."

"It will," he assured her.

Beth rested her head down on her knees and turned her head. He thought that she did that so he would not be able to see the worry that was in her eyes as she thought about Maggie and her baby and the delivery. He knew he needed to do something to get her mind off of that, distract her. That was when he remembered the necklace that he took from the house, the one he intended to give to Beth as a gift.

Daryl moved off the bed and around Beth. "Close your eyes," he instructed.

Beth picked up her head and grinned as she did what he asked.

Daryl made sure that her eyes were shut and then moved so that he could reach his extra worn pair of pants that had been thrown onto the top bunk days ago. He reached into the pocket and took out the necklace that he had been keeping safe. Daryl then got back down on the bottom bunk to lay down like he had been before. He held up the piece of jewelry up by the chain so that is was in Beth's line of vision.

"Open."

Beth batted her eyes open to see the necklace that he showed her. Her mouth gaped open for a moment before she shut it, putting her hand over her heart. "For me?"

"Who else?"

Beth let out a small giggle. "Will you put it on?"

Daryl nodded and Beth turned around. He sat up, taking the chain into two hands, and brought it around her neck before he snapped the small clasp in the back shut.

He laid back down as Beth turned back around to face him. She had her chin tilted down, admiring the necklace that dangled in her fingers, her thumb running over the silver heart. "It's perfect. I've always wanted one like this. Thank you."

Daryl saw how happy she looked at that moment, smiling down at him with her hand around the heart necklace. It was really his heart that she had at her fingertips.

"Don't mention it."

That looming question of if he was in love with Beth popped back into his head again as he watched Beth play with her new necklace.

How was he supposed to know?

Was he supposed to tell her?

Daryl got distracted when Beth's head snapped up. "I have something for you, too!" Beth exclaimed as she got off the bed in a brisk manner. "Stay here. I have to go back to my cell. I'll be right back!"

Daryl smiled at how excited Beth seemed to be. She flew out of there like the place was on fire. He heard her run down the steps in only socks and out the door that was at the end of the hallway so she could get back to her cell.

He shook his head. Who would have thought that he would be exchanging gifts with Beth Greene?

She was back in a flash, smiling wide with her hand around her back. She hopped back onto the bed in the same position that she had been in before. Daryl waited, mind pondering what she could possibly have for him.

Beth's hand twisted around from her back and held out five new arrows in front of him, solid black ones with deep red fletchings on the ends.

"Were did you get these?" he questioned, immediately intrigued.

Daryl had been looking for replacements for his old arrows for months, and now he was down to only three left since he could never find any that would work with his crossbow.

"I found them in that house that you, me, and Michonne were in when you were still upstairs. I was gonna to give them to you right away but I thought I would hold onto them and give them as a gift," she explained. Beth then pouted and said, "Considerin' you ain't very easy to shop for."

Daryl snorted and nudged her legs, taking the arrows into his hand to examine them. They were the perfect length and width to use with his crossbow, possibly the best ones he has ever had. "Yeah, well, you got me exactly what I needed."

"You should teach me how to make arrows," she suggested, taking one of them out of his grasp, rubbing her fingers across the smooth body of it. "Then you could have an endless supply for backup. And you could teach me how to hunt, too."

"I'll show ya in the spring, how's that? Before Maggie has the baby."

"Okay. It's a deal."

"And maybe if you're good I'll show you how to use the crossbow."

Beth's jaw dropped. "Really?"

"Really."

"But you never let anyone touch or use your crossbow."

"You're not just anyone," he insisted.

Daryl plucked the arrow out of her hand and leaned over the bed to grab his crossbow off the ground. He took the old arrows out of the resting place in the front and replaced them with the new ones that Beth gave him before setting it safely back on the ground.

Beth stuck her fingers into the holes that had ripped at the knees of his pants. "Want me to fix this?"

"Nah," he dismissed.

He didn't care all that much about appearances. The rips and tears did not bother him in the slightest, and more would only show up as time went on.

Beth giggled, her whole body moving with laughter. "I should have gotten you new pants for Christmas," she joked.

"And a matchin' sweater," he added, playing along. "With my name on it."

Beth laid down on her stomach, bringing herself over to rest her chest onto his, brushing a few long wisps of hair away from them being dangerously close to his eyes. "Maybe some embroidered socks, too," she teased, then gave him and brief kiss.

That brief kiss turned into something more.

After a few minutes, Daryl scooped up Beth and laid her down on her back so he could press his weight into her when he was on top of her. He found himself unbuttoning the long sleeved striped shirt that Beth had on. He expected to feel cotton up against his nervous fingertips when every button was undone and his hands touched the fabric of the bra she had on. However, that was not the case.

He pulled his lips away from hers to look down at her chest, that he saw was covered in a solid red bra that had lace detail.

His eyes snapped up to hers, unprepared for this. "And where did you get _this_?"

"Is it too much?" she sheepishly asked, blushing.

Daryl moved his lips to her neck. "Too much on your body," he clarified.

He ran his fingers over the soft lace again, the sensation easily finding its way to his dick. Beth grabbed a handful of his hair, moving her legs so that he fell directly in between them. He moaned against her skin when he felt her hand run up his back and underneath his shirt, fingers pressing into his skin and his scars.

He reacted by pushing his body further up against her. "Fuck," he breathed out. "Beth, you're killin' me."

She grabbed onto his hair again and brought his head away from her neck and in front of her so that they were face to face. "I want you."

It took him a moment to realize what she was really asking for.

"You sure?" he asked, somewhat in disbelief.

"Yes."

"Someone could walk in."

"No one is around," she argued. "It's just us."

_Just us. _

"We can wait, I swear," he truthfully told her. "I don't want you to feel like you gotta—"

Beth inched up and kissed him on the lips to stop him from talking, hand snaking around his neck so she could pull him back onto her, and she could relax back onto the pillow. "I want you. Now. Right here."

He wanted her, too.

Needed her.

_Craved _her.

He didn't hesitate. His body would not allow it.

Daryl crashed his lips back into Beth's, them both responding to each other at the same rate. He would like to go slow, would like to make every touch feel good to her, but there was only a certain amount of restraint that he would be able to muster up when it came to Beth.

_His Beth._

His hands removed the shirt completely and tossed it over onto the floor. Daryl's shirt is the next thing to go, Beth's hands running down his back, his side, and over every scar that was permanently placed there. He didn't mind it. The scars didn't make him feel ashamed anymore, not when he had Beth who assured him that they were beautiful in their own way.

Beautiful.

His hideous and repulsing scars had beauty to them in Beth's eyes.

_Because they are a part of you, s_he had said many nights ago, _that's what makes them beautiful._

_Beautiful. _That was the exact word that she used that night when he changed into a different shirt and caught Beth admiring him from the bed.

From there on, the scars stopped bothering him. He would let Beth's hands travel to his back whenever she wanted to let them do that. In fact, right at that moment, he loved that she could gently feel the skin there and then claw at him when he nipped at her neck.

It drove him wild.

And now it came to the point where more clothes should be removed. He almost didn't want to take that lacy red bra off because it looked so fucking good on her. He imagined that black would look even better with her milky skin tone, but he would not complain. The red color matched his new arrows, and he wondered if Beth planned it that way.

So he did take that bra off after he ran his hands over the cups of the garment one more time for the hell of it, his hands going underneath her and fumbling with that bra clasp in the back for a second or two. It had been a while since he had taken one off. Hadn't since the dead started walking around. Daryl ignored that heated feeling in his face once the bra was on the ground with their two shirts. He pushed both his hands up onto her bare small breasts for the first time, her nipples hardening under his touch.

He kissed his way down from her chest to her abdomen, running his tongue over her navel. He got up to his knees, unbuttoning and unzipping her jeans in a swift movement, and then slid them down her thighs. He took her in once he heard the jeans hit the floor. Beth was topless, perky breasts on display, with matching red solid lace panties on, and legs spread so that they were on either side of his own as he knelt before her. One of her arms was rested behind her head, her eyes pouring into his with lust and desire.

And _fuck_ he almost came in his pants right there, from that very sight.

She was so beautiful.

Absolutely stunning.

Hands down, the most gorgeous girl who had ever walked the planet.

And she was all his.

_His. _

"You're beautiful, Beth," she told her, feeling the need to let the words roll off his tongue. Beth blushed for a second time, looking up at him with an expression that said _you are, too._

He got back on top of her, pressing her into the mattress with one hand squeezing her exposed breast gently before he kissed his way down from her neck to her breasts, leaving a wet trail behind. His tongue flicked over the hard buds, hand caressing the other breast. Beth let out a moan as he did that. Her hand grabbed a fistful of hair and her fingernails dug at his scalp. That was when he knew that he must have been doing something right (because he really did need to know that he was making her feel good).

But the thing is that Beth was young and she was inexperienced, so every touch was electric to her. She could be easily pleased, which was good because he was not the most skilled at making it feel good and worth it for the other person. That, and Daryl didn't think he was going to be able to last very long. Especially when Beth made the kind of noises that she did. The kind of noises that escaped her mouth because of what he did to her.

He removed his mouth and brought it back up to Beth's, kissing her sloppily. It was wet and unchoreographed and his tongue pushed into her mouth so he could kiss her deeper.

More passionately.

Beth had her hands on his pants before he knew it. He felt her warm fingers dip into the sides as if to tell him that he needed to take them off.

He obliged.

Daryl got up from the bed, also realizing that the condoms he snatched from the store were tucked safely away between a few pairs of shirts that he had underneath his bunk. He bent down and got out the box, Beth watching him curiously before she understood what he had as he opened it up and took out one of the wrappers.

Beth gave him a smile of approval.

For a moment he thought that he should cover her up or something. Even though he finally gave in a put one of those sheets across his cell so no one could look in, he didn't want anyone else to have the chance to see Beth almost naked on his bed. He didn't want anyone to see her bare legs around him in the next few minutes. It might be possessive, but he didn't give a fuck. Beth was his and only his.

Daryl unzipped his pants and dropped them to the floor, hooking his thumbs into the waistline of the boxers he wore as well. He stepped out of them, momentarily feeling awkward standing there stark naked with a hard on. He got butterflies in his stomach when Beth's eyes raked over his body, head to toe, taking in everything. It occurred to him that it was the first time that she had ever seen a man naked before.

Hopefully he didn't disappoint.

A smirk appeared on her face after a few seconds of gazing, which relaxed him, and Daryl could no longer control himself. He pulled the sheet down that was underneath her, Beth arching up so he could do so. He got on top of her again, Beth spreading her legs for him as he brought the sheet back up so that it was at the base of his spine. That way if anyone were to walk in on them, which he doubted anyone would, Beth would be covered and he would not remain paranoid about anyone seeing her.

He almost lost it again when he fully pressed into her, his dick rubbing onto the flesh of her warm inner thigh. For sure, he thought that was the end of the road for him, but he somehow managed to keep it together.

The only thing that kept them apart was the thin layer of lacy material on Beth's bottom half of her body. And Daryl didn't want to rush this. He couldn't stand the thought of stripping her and fucking her in a hurry. No, that was every other time he had sex in the past, before the world was like it was. Before he cared about someone so deeply.

This time would be different.

This time would be special because he cared so much for Beth.

It was not going to be just a quick fuck to him. No. It would never be like that when it was with her.

"You sure about this, Beth?"

He had to ask, had to know the answer.

He wanted her to be one hundred percent sure that this was indeed what she desired because he was perfectly fine with keeping things the way they were. He didn't need the sex part to be a component of their relationship if Beth wanted to put it off longer. He could deal with that. He also needed to make sure that she was still okay with him touching her small frame with his rough, calloused, worn hands. Because he honestly still didn't know why she let him.

Her hand reached between them and started to stroke his hard dick, and she answered honestly with, "Never been more sure of anythin' in my life."

Daryl didn't know how Beth had never done this before. Her hand movements made him moan into her mouth, and he took her hand away after a few more pumps because he knew that he would be done for if she kept that up. He was entirely oversensitive to her touch. Her warm and smooth hands anywhere on his body threatened to make him tip over the edge, and at any moment.

Beth took the initiative and dragged her panties down her thighs and wiggled them the rest of the way off, which did wonders for his dick since it was pressed up against her thigh as she moved below him, and forced him to groan.

The only thing she had on was that necklace he gave her, securely fastened right above her cleavage.

Daryl slipped a hand down to Beth's thigh, moving it up more, and hooked it around his hip. At first, he put one finger into her, and then added another to stretch her out before he went all in. And _fuck _was she wet. A throaty noise escaped his lips and Beth sighed, her muscles relaxing around him. He glanced up at Beth to look her in the eyes, to make sure one last time that she was still okay with what he was doing. She smiled, giving him a nod to tell him to continue and not stop, not for a second.

He ripped the condom wrapper apart with his teeth, taking it out and reaching down between their two bodies to get to his member. Daryl rolled on the condom all the way with a grunt before he gripped onto Beth's hip and lined himself up at her wet entrance. Daryl didn't want to her hurt her, it was the last thing he wanted to do. But Beth encouraged him, told him she would be alright. He believed her. So he buried his head into Beth's shoulder as he slowly and carefully pushed in, Beth's fingernails raking against his scalp again, and her other set of nails digging into his back until he was all the way inside of her.

"Beth," he moaned.

Nothing had ever felt better. She was so tight around him, her walls adjusting to the new intrusion, and so wet that Daryl's whole body screamed at him to please just fucking move. But Daryl ignored the pleas because Beth needed more time to get used to the feeling of him being inside of her.

She let out a sharp sigh, moving her hips in a way that made him whimper again against her soft skin. He placed a kiss on her shoulder as her hands slid up his sides and settled in a place on his back with her palms planted firmly on his skin.

"Okay," she breathed out. "You can move."

So he did.

Daryl went slow at first, rocking into her, watching her face change as he would thrust in and out with a rhythm that came from an unknown place. He looked her in the eyes, something he has never done with anyone before, as he pulled out and slid back inside, and found himself being pushed further to the edge as Beth stared back up at him.

He buried his face into her shoulder again, his thrusts becoming deeper and quicker as the desperate need for release crept its way up. There was no way in hell that he would last much longer. His hand dug into her hip as he neared the end of the line, the other hidden into her hair. Beth hooked her other leg onto his hip, hard, fingers pressing into his the muscles of his shoulder blades and he lost complete control.

He fell apart.

Daryl moaned out Beth's name again as he climaxed, the warm and tingly feeling spreading through him and down his spine. He then collapsed on top of Beth, out of breath, with his muscles relaxing against her. He planted one more kiss onto her neck before he put one onto her lips.

Daryl rolled off of her and quickly disposed of the used condom, laying back down in bed with her, a lazy smile on Beth's face. It was not long until they both drifted off to sleep, Beth curled up next to him, happy. Before he succumbed to the much needed sleep, he turned onto his side and put his arm around Beth protectively.

_**A/N: There you have it! The smut chapter ;) And there will be more to come (no pun intended).**_

_**Also, I sat down and planned out what else I wanted to write for this fic and decided to complete this story with 25 chapters (and then proceeded to write the remaining chapters all out until it was 3 am. Just need to edit them). So there are only 5 more chapters left to go! Thanks for hanging in here this long :)**_

_**And I also want to mention that I have an AU no zombies Daryl and Beth story in mind. The first chapter is already written out and I'm thinking about posting it soon to see if you all would like me to continue with it. I'll need something more to write now that I'm in the final phases of completing this story. So is anyone interested in an AU no zombie bethyl fic? Let me know :D**_


	21. Chapter 21

Daryl was in the middle of a nightmare. It was one of those horrible dreams where he knew that he was dreaming but he could not wake himself up for the life of him. There was something bad going on, an attack on the prison. Tons of walkers poured in and Daryl could not find Beth anywhere. He searched the halls, the guard tower, the cells, the courtyard. Everywhere. There were only walkers, dead bodies, and blood. No Beth. She was gone.

Literally, his worst nightmare.

He jolted awake when he felt hands on him, jerking him out of the nightmare that was plaguing his sleep.

"Hey," Beth whispered to him, running her hand into his hair, admiring his sleepy state. "It's just me."

Daryl relaxed, resting his head back onto the pillow. He loved that she was always there to comfort him and that she was always affectionate, especially with him. Every chance she got she did something that made Daryl stop in his tracks and just _feel_. Every touch reassured him that he was not imagining Beth being with him, being by his side.

"Bad dream?" she questioned.

He nodded his head. Daryl then tilted it and placed a kiss onto Beth's wrist. "Couldn't find you," he explained, breathing in the smell of her silky skin.

"I'm right here now."

Yeah, she was always right there when he needed her to be.

Daryl peered up at her through his hooded eyes. Beth was wearing a heavy black jacket with a light blue hat that almost matched her eyes, her skin increasingly pale because it was in the dead of winter there at the prison. Her cheeks were rosy red, letting him know that she had been outside recently.

"It's cold out. Why were you outdoors?"

Beth deeply sighed. "Gotta tell you somethin'."

"What?"

She seemed very reluctant to tell him. "Your brother is here."

"Merle?" he asked, a bit in disbelief.

"Is there another brother that you have that I don't know about?" she asked, a bit sarcastic, but still in a joking way.

"No. Just one."

How long ago was the last time he saw his brother? Their fight in the woods had drove him off for months, and Daryl had begun to think that he would never see him again. But that was Merle for you. He would disappear without a trace than then pop back up out of the blue like nothing was wrong.

"Yes, it's Merle," she affirmed, stroking the side of his cheek again. "He's outside right now with Rick talkin' about some things. He showed up at the gate ten minutes ago and I heard from Maggie that Rick let him after he promised not to pull anything and gave up his gun over to Rick."

Daryl rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand. "Shit," he mumbled. It was too early for this kind of stuff.

"Come on, get up. I'll come out with you."

Daryl reluctantly dragged himself out of bed and threw on a shirt, pulling his belt on. Beth tossed him a warmer jacket to put overtop, and he slid it over his shoulders. Beth and him walked through the empty hallways together slower than usual until they passed through the door that took them outside into the cold and windy weather of what was probably January. Daryl winced since he was not expecting the frigid and unfriendly morning air to hit him in the face like it had and instantly send a chill down his body.

A thousand and one questions ran through Daryl's mind as he walked over to where Rick, Glenn, Maggie, and Merle all stood by the gates. Why did he come back? What did he want? What all did he really say to make Rick let him in? Because quite frankly, he is surprised that Rick even let Merle past the first gate.

"There's my brother," Merle smugly greeted once Daryl was in hearing distance of him, noticing that Daryl was coming towards him with Beth. "It's 'bout time. See there, Officer? Told ya he'd be willin' to talk."

Rick turned back to Daryl, not amused by being called _Officer_ by Merle. Part of Daryl thought that maybe he should give Rick an apologetic look to show that he was sorry for whatever Merle might have said other than that before he got down to them. He is sure that there must have been another nickname thrown in as they spoke. He could only imagine the words uttered out of his brother's mouth. Because Daryl sure as hell has heard a lot in his day.

Beth strode up beside him, her arms bumping into Daryl's as they came to a stop by the rest of the small group. Merle noticed, and said, "Well, I don't believe I've ever had the pleasure of bein' introduced to this one here," he slurred out, looking at Beth.

"Can I talk to my brother alone?" Daryl abruptly asked the group members, before anything else was said.

They obliged his request, all nodding as they turned. Glenn put a hand on Daryl's shoulder, as if to tell him _good luck._ Then they all headed to go back inside where it was warmer, trusting Daryl to take care of things and tie up loose ends, if needed. Rick gave a nod of his head as he passed, a gesture that told Daryl that Rick trusted him enough to make a good judgment call when it came to Merle.

Beth lingered, and Daryl nodded for her to follow the others. She gave him a reassuring kiss on the cheek, just what he needed in that moment, and then strode up next to the others before escaping inside.

"Come on, this way."

He led is brother away from where they had been standing, up the dirt path so that they were in front of one of the cell blocks, where the wind was not as brutal. Because being out in the open with that wind would not help out when Daryl went to light a cigarette. He needed one to get through the conversation that was about to happen with his brother.

Daryl took one out of his back pocket along with a lighter and lit the end, placing it between his lips.

"Didn't think she was actually yer girl," Merle told him, truthfully. "Said some shit before. Wouldn't have said what I did back in the woods if I had known."

"Yes, you would have," Daryl replied to him, knowing who his brother was and how he would manipulate words about the people around him to mess with his head.

"Yer probably right. But I'd like ta think I ain't so callous, though."

Daryl leaned up against the wall behind him and stared out at the walkers who were along the fence line. He felt uncomfortable having to talk to his brother now, unsure of what to say. It was not like he was going to throw him a welcome to the prison party and be able to forget all the shit that went down in the past.

"Beth and me...we wasn't together when we was in the woods. When you said what you said and then I hit you. Happened after that, just so you know."

Merle was quiet for a few minutes, and that concerned Daryl. He suspected that there was more that Merle wanted to say.

"It's nice," Merle finally said. "That you got someone, I mean. After all these years. Your girl seems nice enough from where I stand."

Daryl eyed his brother suspiciously. "Are you drunk?"

Merle snickered. "No."

"High?"

"Nope."

"You sure?"

"Positive, little brother."

It didn't make any sense.

"Then why you actin' so...I don't know. _Kind_? It ain't like you. Never had one good thing to say..."

"Maybe I ain't the same person I used to be. You sure ain't. Figured a lot of shit out when I was on my own." Merle took the cigarette right out of Daryl's hand and brought it up to his own lip's to inhale the smoke. "Blondie like you smokin'? Bet she don't. I'll do her a favor and make sure you don't get any of the good stuff into your lungs. Can't just stand by and watch ya get lung cancer, little brother."

"Jackass," he remarked, a smirk working its way on his face.

It kind of felt like old times, only without the painful and ruthless exchange of bitter words mixed in.

Perhaps him being at the prison could work after all.

Maybe.

Merle laughed in reply to his remark. "Yep. That's me. But been out there on my own for a while. Found that I couldn't live without my little brother. So, now I'm here. Did what you told me ta do, too. Told Officer Friendly that I was a straight up fuckin' idiot in Atlanta and shit like that won't happen again. Don't know if he believed me but I meant most of it."

"You comin' here tellin' me you were out there _soul searching_ this whole time?"

"Wouldn't put it that way. Like I said, couldn't live without my brother. And if that means comin' here were there's rules and all that shit, then so be it."

There was an understanding between the two of them. Daryl realized that even though Merle had done some really shitty things in the past, and a lot of really shitty things to him, he was still blood. At least he was trying, which was something new.

So, there they were.

Two brothers. Two very different brothers. But still, _brothers._

—

Daryl kept his distance for the rest of the day, figuring out his own thoughts after telling Rick that he believed that Merle would not be a problem. Merle got situated in a cell that Carol directed him to. Daryl had spent enough time avoiding his older brother by that point, and decided to go see if he needed anything. As he got closer to the cell, Daryl heard to voices talking. His initial thought was that Merle was probably harassing someone with stupid comments, the usual thing he did, but as he approached, Daryl heard that his brother's voice sounded more sincere than sounding unkind with his words; an interesting change.

He caught a quick glimpse of Beth's hair as he rounded the corner, so he turned back around, neither of the seeing him as he ducked back behind the wall.

"Thought you might freeze me out," he heard his brother explain to Beth. "I'm sure Daryl's told ya a whole lot of not the greatest stories 'bout me. Wasn't always the best brother to him. But, you already know that, I'm assumin'."

There was a lapse, silence for a moment, and Daryl wondered what could possibly be going through Beth's mind.

"Yes, he's told me a number of stories. But he seems willing to work on things if you are. You gotta actually put in the effort, though. Everyone needs a second chance," her soft voice finally said. "Even you, Merle."

Daryl felt the corners of his lips turn up, resting his head against the wall behind him. It was just like Beth to be the kindest that she could possibly be, even after all the stuff she heard about Merle, his wild antics and volatile behavior. She never faltered in her belief that there was good inside everyone.

"You sure 'bout that?"

"Yes. I'm sure. You need to prove yourself to everyone, though. And that won't be easy. It'll take some time."

Merle laughed. "Might not get the chance. That bl—" For his own sake, Merle stopped himself from saying a spiteful racist comment, which is another thing that was new. "_Michonne_ might come down here in the middle of the night and slice me up like some kind of mango. Feed strips of me to the biters through the fence. She'd like that."

Merle snickered after that, and it sounded like Beth let out a soft giggle.

"She won't," Beth assured him, then swiftly added, "As long as you don't do anythin' stupid. I mean, she does kind of hate your guts for shooting her in the leg at The Governor's request. So maybe you should steer clear of her for a while. Let her get used to the idea of you bein' here."

"Avoidin' people ain't gonna be too easy in a place like this."

"Try," Beth encouraged, taking the pressing matter seriously.

"Hey, I hear ya. Know what my brother said ta do a while back?"

"What?"

"Apologize."

Beth huffed. "That ain't such a bad idea, now is it?"

"Honey, she ain't never gonna like me. Why bother?"

"Well, an apology couldn't hurt. As long as it is somewhat meaningful."

There was another long silence, and Daryl wondered if he should come out from around the corner now that it seemed like their short conversation had ceased. But then, Merle redirected the conversation, picking it up in a new direction.

"So, you and my brother. Never would have imagined that," he said.

"Well, it's true."

"I can already tell you're good for him. Hands down, I bet yer the best thing that ever happened to him," Merle immediately followed up with. "Don't tell him I said that. Don't need my little brother thinkin' that I'm goin' soft or somethin' like that."

Beth laughed. "Your secret is safe with me. And thank you for sayin' that."

From the sound of it, Daryl believed that Beth got up to leave the cell because he heard her few light footsteps march towards the other hallway that led out of the cell Merle was in. He was about to move again, when suddenly Beth's normally quiet voice turned stern and serious, with a hint wary in her tone.

"Don't hurt him," Beth added, emotion behind her words. "Because if you do, you'll wish you'd never had. I'll make sure of that."

Daryl almost laughed at how Beth had threatened Merle, but then quickly came to the conclusion that she had said it out of genuine concern and out of immense care for Daryl, and devotion to him. He could have sworn that his heart skipped a beat right then.

_**A/N: That's right. Back to back updates ;) and I might just post the next chapter tomorrow, too.**_


	22. Chapter 22

It was early spring.

And with spring, there was renewal.

The plants grew, trees filling back in to their natural bright green color, flower buds blooming, the garden was coming to life again, promising them a well balanced diet for the next two seasons of summer and fall. Daryl would be able to hunt more as the animals came out of their burrows to look for more food, and to start packing back up for a winter that was far off.

And they all somehow managed to not lose anymore people. No deaths. Not one. And they were all pretty damn proud about that. There were a couple close calls, but only injuries, no deaths. No more graves had been dug and there had been no more funerals. They were able to keep people alive and safe from the outside world. In fact, there was a rise in population. Five more entered the prison, a mother and her two teenage sons along with two men in their early thirties who had been surviving together.

Merle had not been much of any trouble (and that's some kind of miracle right there). In time, Daryl guessed, their brotherly relationship mended itself. It was still the same bickering and fighting over stupid shit, but it wasn't the controlling one they had been in before Daryl had been separated from him and with Rick's group. Daryl remained feeling guarded with his brother, and he thought that that might not ever go away. But, even if it didn't, he was grateful that his brother was there at the prison. Beth seemed to enjoy his wildly inappropriate humor, which is a surprise to him. Occasionally, Merle would give Daryl this look when they were all together, as if to tell him_, "Can't believe this one tied ya down, brother. How did ya get so lucky?"_

He would never know that answer for sure.

Maggie was about eight months pregnant and was going stir-crazy because she didn't like only being able to do laundry or help with prepping meals. Glenn was by her side constantly, worried about her picking up things that were too heavy. And apparently that annoyed Maggie to the extreme. Daryl would chuckle to himself whenever he saw Maggie with irritated wide eyes, about to tell Glenn for the hundredth time that laundry baskets weighed practically nothing. Luckily, Glenn did not get into too much trouble with his wife because Beth would remind her that he was simply nervous about the arrival of their child and wanted Maggie to be safe. So, it was a good thing that Beth offered up some distraction by keeping her sister company.

Renewal was here, and there was also a certain shift in Daryl and Beth's relationship.

One night a few weeks ago, Daryl had casually (and nervously) told Beth that he should just move all his shit into her cell, considering that was where he spent most of his nights anyways. Beth had knowingly smiled at him, and then told him that she thought it was a good idea and she had been thinking the same thing.

He found that the two of them were always on the same page.

Things moved forwards and everyone was busy with maintaining life at the prison. One day Daryl passed Lizzie in the halls as she bounced down them with a bundle of cans of food in her arms. She saw him and stopped to politely greet him, then asked, "Are you and Beth going to be married like Glenn and Maggie? And then have a baby?"

It was another innocent question out of curiosity from the young girl's mind, and it threw Daryl off balance. His mind blanked at that moment. Daryl never answered her, luckily Carl interrupted them and Lizzie shrugged as she traveled back down the hall with Carl by her side, the question blowing over.

He never had thought about that before, never thought it would ever be in the cards for him, really. And he was not ready to contemplate it, or even answer the question. Someday he would, but not now.

One thing at a time.

—

It was very late. The middle of the night, however, was the best time to shower because no one else was in there and there would be no one around to hear Daryl and Beth.

Daryl felt the pressure of the slightly warm water hit his back as he had Beth pinned to the tile wall in the shower. His hands gripped her bare thighs as he pushed her into the wall a bit harder, rubbing his wet body on hers. Beth's wet hair was all pulled to the back so it was plastered to her skin, and allowed Daryl to put his mouth on both of her breasts, kissing down to the hardened buds and running his tongue along them.

She let out soft whimpers that were just loud enough to be audible to him over the sound of the water hitting the tile floor when he rubbed his fingers into her folds and teased her very wet entrance.

He glanced back up at her, hair soaked, blue eyes dilated with drops of water hanging off the dark eyelashes, red lips that were parted, and his name on the tip of her tongue. Beautiful, always beautiful. His Beth was never anything but that.

She moved some of the wet hair away from his face, hooking a hand around his neck with a firm grasp, the other on the back of his head so she could grab at the hair. He pressed his entire torso up against her and found himself inches away from her face, from her lips, to the point where they were sharing the same gasping air between them.

"Daryl," she panted. "Stop teasing me."

He smirked into her shoulder, then nipped at her neck in the place that Beth liked. "Why would I ever want to do that?"

Beth expelled out a sigh. "Please."

"Please what?"

All he wanted was to hear those words.

"Need you. Want you. Now."

Suddenly, realization dawned on his. "Fuck. I don't have a condom."

"Don't care," she breathed, tightening the grasp in his hair.

He hesitated because he had never fucked without a condom before. He knew better than to not have one. But here Beth was, thighs burning into his hips as he held her up against the wall and his dick telling him to just fucking go for it. Beth told him to do that.

An impossible situation to make a decision in.

"Please," she begged. "It'll be fine. I'll take one of Maggie's hidden stash of morning after pills." Beth moved her hips, purposefully, to drive him crazy where he stood. "Please, Daryl."

He gave in without further thought to it. Daryl was not going to keep her waiting. He slid her up the steamy wall and then adjusted his hips so that he brought her back down onto him, the both of them moaning once he was completely inside. "Fuck," he groaned as the overwhelmingly good and hot sensation ran through him. It was like nothing he had ever felt before. She was so warm, and so inviting.

"Fuck, Beth. You always feel so good for me," he just barely was able to say. Quite frankly, he was astounded that he could form the right words to utter.

Beth let out a few little humming sounds into his neck when he began to move. Daryl held her tight as pulled out before he pushed back in, going slow at first, and then quickened his pace. Beth caught his lips and he eagerly kissed her back until they needed to gasp for more air. Daryl lightened up on the grasp he had on her thighs, fearing that he might put a bruise or two on them from pressing his fingers in her skin too hard.

His breath hitched in his throat as release came over him, just as Beth's body hunched forward into him as hers hit.

_**—**_

Back in their cell, everything was quiet. They were in bed, neither of them tired yet. Daryl enjoyed laying there with Beth. Nothing had to be said and he would be completely content. Having her there had been and always would be enough for him.

"Daryl?"

"Hm?"

"Remember how you told me that you would take me hunting before Maggie's baby came," Beth hinted.

Daryl sighed, the conversation coming back to him from months ago. "You have a good memory."

"Well, I was thinkin' that we could go soon. Since now it's spring and Maggie's baby will to comin' soon. And once that happens I'll be helping out a lot with that and I'll be too busy to go."

He looked over at her, noticing the excitement and eagerness in her eyes. He couldn't tell her no. "When do you wanna go?" he asked, giving in to her request to come hunting with him and have him show her how he did it.

"Really?" she smiled.

"Yes, really. As long as you—"

"_Stay close_," she imitated his voice, expecting him to have said that. "I know."

He smirked, rolling his eyes. "That's not what I was gonna say. What I was gonna say was, as long as you want to use the crossbow while we're out. Might as well learn."

Beth propped herself up on an elbow, intrigued. "The crossbow? _Your_ crossbow? Daryl Dixon's crossbow?"

"What other one is there?"

"Wait. So, you would really let me use it? Am I dreamin' right now?"

There it was. That sparkle in her eye that he adored. "Ain't dreamin'. 'Course I'd let ya. You're the only one I'd ever let have it."

Beth squealed. "Aw, that's so sweet of you."

"Stop it," he complained, hiding his own smile.

"I'm going on a run tomorrow so maybe we could go the day after that. What do you think?"

Daryl turned his head towards her, running his hand against her semi-wet hair from the shower. His jaw set at the thought of her going out while Daryl stayed behind at the prison to help Rick reinforce the fences. "We should talk about the whole you goin' on a run without me deal."

"Daryl," she whined, hiding her face in the pillow. "It'll be fine. I gotta go. Maggie is requesting more neutral colored baby clothes since we have no way to tell whether it's a boy of a girl. So Glenn and me are plannin' on raiding a few houses on the way out. Because Maggie doesn't trust Glenn to pick out stuff she will like. But seriously, you don't need to worry. Michonne, Tyreese, and Glenn will all be with me. We will be unstoppable," she giggled.

"Unstoppable, huh?"

"Like the Fantastic Four," she joked, making herself laugh. "Only better."

"I don't like you goin' without me, you know that."

Beth kissed his arm. "I can handle myself."

"I know you can," he told her, turning onto his side, running his hand along her small waist. "Things happen, though."

Beth moved so that she pressed him onto his back and her chest rested against his. "I like that you're so protective."

She proceeded to press her lips against his jawline, down his neck, and onto his bare chest. Daryl's breathing rate picked up as her mouth worked its way down to the skin of his abdomen, tongue running across the muscles. His mouth gaped open, letting out an unsteady breath of air from his lungs. His hands went into Beth's beautiful long blonde hair. He loved the feeling of the silky strands in his calloused and rough hands. He squeezed a handful of locks when he felt Beth's lips kiss right above the line where his pants started.

"You're tryin' to distract me, aint ya?"

Beth giggled and he felt the wonderful vibration on his skin, driving him further into ecstasy. "Shut up. You know you like it."

"Ain't no denying that," he confessed. "Come 'er." Daryl easily hooked his hand underneath the hollow of her arm where her shoulder was and dragged Beth back up to his level, and then pushed her down onto the mattress. "That's better."

"Twice in one night? I'm impressed, Dixon."

He smirked, looking down at her as her fingers danced along his back. "Quiet, Greene."

"What? Will I wake the neighbors?" she joked. "You're the one who is loud..."

Daryl caught her lips and ran his tongue gently across her bottom lip, needing entry. She granted him that and he sighed into her mouth. Her fingers ran down his back even more and the she flattened her palms to press his body into hers more effectively. It was not long before he felt her small hand sink below his pants and rub his manhood as he sucked a red spot onto the side of her neck.

Beth knew how to touch him in the right way. She knew how to make him squirm and moan.

He stripped her of her clothes and then rid himself of his own before he reached under his bunk where he had condoms stashed, but Beth stopped his hand. "Morning after pill, remember?"

He dropped the box back onto the floor. "I need you," he told her.

"Good. Need you, too."

It was like the other times. Hot, heated and consisted of them pawing at the others skin because they wanted to lose themselves in each other. They knew exactly how to please each other at this point, having done this repeatedly for months now. Daryl rolled off of Beth when they both got what they wanted for a second time that night.

"You'll be safe tomorrow, right?" he asked, still out of breath as he gazed over at Beth. "Come back without a scratch?"

She cuddled into his side as she brought the sheet up around her shoulder. "I'll come back to you. I'll always come back to you."

_**A/N: The first chapter of the Bethyl No Zombies AU I was talking about is now posted—called In an Instant. And I am incredibly nervous about it! Tell me if I should continue with it, please and thank you :) I need something else to write now that this story will be complete soon.**_


	23. Chapter 23

Morning came too soon.

He didn't want to let Beth go, but knew he had to. She whispered in his ear before she left, said the same thing she told him last night, that she would come back to him.

_I'll come back to you._

Those words were on repeat in his head. He believed them, he had to in order to keep him sane.

Reinforcing the length of the fences took hours. Daryl didn't mind the manual labor, he was good at it. Not to mention that it kept him partially distracted from the absence of Beth. And Rick did not feel the need to fill in the silence with useless words, only ones that would have meaning. No pointless small talk. It was straight down to business. Rick also got the sense that Daryl's mind was half elsewhere else to begin with, considering Beth was out on a run.

When the sun began to set, Daryl was nervous, biting off his fingernails as Rick and him finished up with the fences. "They should be back," he stated, staring off into the distance in the way that the cars had left hours and hours ago.

"I know," said Rick.

There was an understanding between the two of them. Daryl's worries were Rick's, too.

Right as the sun was about to dip below the horizon, Daryl noticed that there were two figures running towards the gates. Michonne and Tyreese came into view, smashing down walkers that were in their way. Rick darted over to the gates with Daryl as they opened them up for the two. It was horrifying. Michonne and Tyreese had splatters of blood all over them, combining with the pieces of what looked like walker skin.

"Where's Glenn and Beth?" Rick urged, examining the two who were back at the prison.

Michonne bent forward and put her hands on her knees to catch her breath. "They're not here yet?"

"No," Daryl growled.

Both anger and terror shot through his veins. This was not happening. It couldn't happen.

_She said she would be back._

He was confused and horrified and terrified and then everything in between.

"We got swarmed at a house. Herd came through. We all took off in different directions. I found Tyreese twenty minutes later," she explained, the concern in her eyes not easily hidden at that moment. "I thought they would have made it back before us. We've been running for hours to get here."

Daryl couldn't think straight. All he knew was that Beth was out there somewhere.

How could he have let this happen? Every nerve in his body told him that he wanted to go punch every wall that he could find, just to numb out the pain that he felt for allowing this to happen, for allowing Beth to be lost in the woods with countless walkers and who knew what else was around that was a threat, possibly with Glenn, too.

He felt Rick's hand on his shoulder, steadying him in his place. "Daryl, it will be fine. I promise you that. She'll find her way back. They both will. They are our people. And our people know how to survive."

He only heard half of what Rick had said, heard bits and pieces if it.

His world fell apart around him.

Daryl could not think, let alone breathe correctly. The only thing he saw was the image of Beth that flashed in front of him. And the only thing he felt was the regret for letting her go without him and the pain in his chest that followed after that. He wasn't there to protect her. That was repeated blow to the gut, and the heart.

_I'll come back to you._

The phrase that had been meant to reassure him now haunted him in its own cruel way.

—

The full moon was bright enough to light up the courtyard and the pathway to the gates, even the fences and the outer woods. Daryl was outside, eyes glued to the gates, when Maggie strolled up beside him. He didn't look over at her, but he saw out of the corner of his eye that her hand rested on her swollen belly protectively.

They were both waiting.

"You should sleep," she said.

"Can't. Won't try, either."

"Me, too. I keep waitin' to see them, to hear that Glenn and Beth are back. They're alright, don't you think so? I mean, it's Glenn and my sister. They can survive a night out there. They're strong. They can fight off walkers if they need to. And anything else that stands in their way. They're smart and they'll figure out a way to survive. We're all survivors, after all."

Daryl opted to stay silent. He felt completely and utterly helpless in this situation. He hated that feeling. There was no way for him to find Beth, even though he had argued with Rick that he was going to go back out there and find her and Glenn. The only problem was that Michonne and Tyreese had no idea about where they had started running away from the herd and where the four of them originally split up.

His mind went to dark places.

He thought about Beth in the woods, alone. He winced at the image that played in his mind. He should had taught her how to hunt in the woods and survival techniques sooner. He mentally kicked himself for that.

"Glenn would have found her. Or Beth would have found him. I know that. They are not alone out there," Maggie said, believing every word, and seemed to have read his mind. Either that, or they had the same thoughts that ran through their heads. "They can't travel at night so they found a place to stay. They'll be back. In the morning. I know it."

Her voice broke at that last part. Daryl sucked in a sharp breath. He would not be able to rest until Beth was back by his side, where she belonged. He knew that it would be the same for Maggie. She would not be able to sleep soundly until her sister and her husband had returned in one piece.

"How do you know that?" he asked, needing her to give him a sign that she was right and there was nothing to worry over.

Maggie turned to him, hand rubbing over her belly. "I feel it. In my _bones_. They're okay and they'll be back."

There was a brief moment where relief washed over him. Maggie was sure that everything was fine and that Beth and Glenn would be back by morning. He wanted to believe her, wanted to have the same faith that she shared with her sister, but could not shake the dread, anxiety, panic, and the immense guilt that had been wrapped up all nice for him. He kept it, held onto it. He deserved to feel bad.

"I should be out there," he blurted out. "I should look for them."

"You wouldn't even know where to look. It's too dark out and—"

Daryl snatched up his crossbow, angrily. "Screw it. I'll go anyways. I can't just be waitin' around, Maggie!" Daryl yelled, taking out his frustration.

Emotion overtook him and he felt the water build up in his eyes immediately. He was headed for a nasty breakdown if he didn't get things under control.

_Get it together,_ he shouted at himself.

Maggie tilted her head to the side, her own eyes blurring over with tears that welled up. "Daryl," she murmured. "I know what you are goin' through. It's the same for me. My husband and my sister are out there and I can't do a single thing about it. And it sucks! I feel horrible that I can't leave right now and find them. But I have to stay here." Maggie crossed over to him and grabbed him by the shoulders to force him to look at her. "And you need to stay here. Beth will need you here when she gets back with Glenn. It's too dangerous to go out there, especially alone. I would never forgive myself if I allowed you to walk out those gates and have you not come back. You're part of my family and I need to make sure you don't do anythin' stupid. Beth needs you. Okay?"

That grounded him. "Okay."

Maggie nodded her head, wiping away a few tears that fell onto her cheeks. Surprise played out across her face for a second, her hand reaching down to cover a place on her swollen stomach. "See?" she smiled. "The baby is kicking. Even my child agrees and knows everythin' will be fine."

Daryl offered up a weak grin. He turned back to the gates to watch them, wait to see the familiar figures come up the pathway.

Maggie stayed with Daryl for a while until Carol came outside and was able to talk her into coming inside. Carol did not bother to mention anything to Daryl about leaving his place. She knew better than that. She knew he would not be convinced otherwise. Before she went back in with Maggie, Carol had mumbled something about not letting it all get to his head and not to do anything rash. Nothing impulsive. He couldn't remember the exact words.

He spent the night outside, waiting, watching. Daryl did not feel tired, not even for a second. He was more than alert. His eyes moved around the surroundings, to the edge of the woods, and back to the gates. He killed off some walkers by the fence as morning approached, thinking that he could get rid of some of them for when Beth and Glenn made it back.

For the first time in his whole life he prayed that night. He felt the overwhelming urge to do so. Daryl thought that maybe it could help. Said he would do absolutely anything as long as Beth returned safely with Glenn.

His life meant nothing without her.

Beth was everything.

Michonne also came out in the middle of the night to take watch in the guard tower, though he reckoned that she wanted to keep an eye out for the two missing people. Maggie then came back outside once the sun was up. It was clear to him that she had spent the night awake, the same as him. They didn't say anything, didn't need to. Maggie carefully planted herself down on the ground next to Daryl, who was messing with one of the arrows Beth had given him.

Hours passed and they remained outside in the same place. Maggie got up from her spot on the ground slowly and took a few steps in front of him. He took his eyes off the arrow that he had in his hands and glimpsed up at her to make sure everything was alright. He was about to ask her what she was doing, but then she abruptly turned back to him and said, "Somethin' is in the woods over there."

She pointed to the far side of the woods that was all the way to the right. Daryl's eyes narrowed at the movement of the bushes and trees that he saw. He noticed that Michonne had walked out onto the walkway of the guard tower, looking in that direction as well. He got up off the ground to see better. A walker that was close stumbled to its left, hearing the noise, and that was when Daryl knew that whatever was among the trees was human because the walker was so interested. Then a man came out from the woods and cut the walker down where it had stood with what looked to be an axe. Daryl's eyes adjusted as they squinted at the figure.

"Glenn!" Maggie called out.

Daryl realized at the same time who it was. Glenn snapped his head up and waved his arm over to his wife. And then, suddenly, another figure ran out of the woods behind him, stopping next to Glenn.

He saw the beautiful mess of blonde hair first, wild at the top of her head in her signature ponytail that would always have a braid in it.

Beth.

He ran before he even realized that his feet were moving. Daryl noticed that Glenn and Beth were also running, weaving through the walkers that had turned their attention to them. Glenn and Beth could not have stayed there; they would have been sitting ducks if they had. Maggie waited by the edge of the gate as Michonne met Daryl at the entry and followed him out into the grass and into the group of walkers.

_Beth._ That's all he thought.

He already had an arrow loaded when Michonne sliced the head off of two walkers. Daryl then hit three of them in the head as Glenn and Beth also fought their way through the group. Luckily, Michonne was fast as lightening and easily cut down the remaining walkers that were left on their side after a couple of minutes.

Daryl caught his breath when the group of walkers were all strew about on the ground, dead and lifeless.

_Beth._

She came running at him with a speed he had never seen before. He took a few steps forward and then caught her in his arms when she threw herself at him. The impact was hard and fast, but he could not care less. He loved ever second of it. She was there in his arms and that meant the world to him. He grabbed onto her and held her like he was never going to let her go. Wrapped her against him with his arms real tight. One hand dug into her back as his fingers bunched up her shirt material, the other at the base of her neck.

"Daryl," she muffled into his shoulder, tears falling from her eyes and dropping onto his shirt with the cut off sleeves. She held him tight, seemingly not wanting to let go of him, either.

It hit him then. That question that had loomed over his head for so long finally had a clear answer for him, one he realized right at that moment.

He loved her.

Was _in _love with her.

No doubt about it.

Daryl loved this girl, loved Beth.

And he didn't know for sure until the threat of losing her had been so high.

Daryl angled his head so his cheek brushed against the side of Beth's and he placed his lips right by her ear. "I love you," he whispered, not being able to hold it in. It needed to be said.

No waiting. No second guessing himself.

This was real.

And those were the realest words he had ever said.

He was sure of that.

Beth pulled away, wrapping her two small hands around the back of his neck. She smiled wide up at him, water still in her eyes. "I love you, too. So much! I really do."

She got back onto her toes and he crashed his lips into hers. It was a powerful moment, one that Daryl would relive for the rest of his life, remembering exactly how breathtakingly good this girl made him feel.

And she taught him that, she taught him how to feel. Taught him how to love and how to not be afraid when it came to it.

Beth pulled away, too soon if you asked him, and she placed a palm on the side of his face, big blue eyes staring up at him with this wonderful glimmering look in them that almost knocked him off his feet. "Will you take me hunting now?"

They both chuckled before Daryl nodded to her. "'Course. Anything," he replied, bringing her body back against. "Anythin' you want."

He gave her another quick kiss to the lips before he placed his forehead onto hers.

"You are never goin' anywhere outside the prison without me again," he breathed, afraid of a recurrence. "I ain't gonna lose you."

"Okay," she agreed, hugging onto him tighter.

He pulled away from her. For the first time, he observed that there was blood on her face and scratches from branches down her arms. But she was safe, and there with him, so none of that mattered.

"Alright, love birds," he heard Michonne call out to the two couples who had reunited. "Let's get on back inside before those walkers by the woods get any closer."

Maggie quickly pushed her way over to Beth and hugged her for a while, placing a kiss on the top of her head. "I missed you. Thank God you're back."

"Missed you, too, Maggie."

Glenn put a hand on the small of Maggie's back to guide her back towards the gates. Beth grabbed Daryl's hand and they all walked back inside. Daryl heard Glenn jokingly say to Maggie as he placed and hand onto her stomach, "Thought I told you to stay inside the prison fences."

"The baby told me it wanted to see its father so I had to obey. It won't happen again as long as you don't get lost a second time around."

Beth giggled as she looped her other available hand around his arm, the one that had their fingers intertwined at the end. "I love you, Daryl," she murmured to him a second time.

Yeah, the words sounded better the second time around, smooth and caring as they rolled off her tongue. He realized that no one had ever said those words to him before, and that Beth was the first to ever speak them.

Part of him couldn't believe that he managed to tell her exactly how he felt, about loving her. Honestly, it was long overdue.

_Better late than never._

_**A/N: I was going to wait to post this but I figure why make anyone wait any longer when I already have it written and edited. Everyone seems to really like the updates sooner rather than later :) Two more chapters to go!**_


	24. Chapter 24

"I love you," he whispered to her again. He couldn't stop saying it. It was like the words fell out of his mouth in a way that was beyond his own control. He didn't even have to think about it before the three words were spoken. "Love you."

And out there in the woods, Beth was the only one who would hear him.

Daryl brought himself up to his knees and shrugged Beth out of her dirty jeans after undoing the belt. They slid down her milky white thighs and he tossed them off to the side, close enough that they would easily be able to be put back on if walkers showed up out of the blue. But Daryl is sure that this spot is safe, so he is lenient when it came to where the clothes were thrown to after being torn off.

Daryl's breath became uneven as he fought to stay in control.

He took a brief second to admire Beth's gorgeous body as she laid before him in nothing but gray cotton underwear with the contrast of the light green grass in the background. Beth spread her legs wide to accommodate Daryl between them. He bent back over with one hand on the soft grass that was to the right of her ribcage. He then pressed into her with an eagerness that would not go ignored. His chest heaved as he gasped for air as he felt the hard pressure and unbearable strain of his dick rub against his pants.

She whimpered into the warm spring air as he moved down her body and attacked her perky breasts with his mouth, swirling his tongue around the hard buds as his hands slid down her side, tickling her as they went.

Beth pushed on his chest until he was flat on his back and she was the one on top of him. She reached up to her head and pulled the elastic band out of her hair, letting the blonde locks fall down and cascade over her shoulder as she stuck her hands in her hair and tossed it around a bit, making it look wild and untamed. It turned Daryl on more than Beth would ever know.

She kissed him first, then brought herself up and shimmied down to his legs, her breasts bouncing as she did, causing his dick to twitch. She kept eye contact with him as she slipped her fingers under his pants and pulled them down after she got the zipper undone, slowly taking them off to torture him, something she got a kick out of. Beth got some sort of enjoyment out of making Daryl fidget around while body became oversensitive to her.

And truthfully, he did not mind it.

Okay, he actually really liked having to wait a bit longer for the prize he was granted in the end.

Her mouth instantly went to where the top of the line of his pants had been before they were balled up on the ground. Beth's warm and moist tongue dragged across his skin and it made him smirk at how well she knew his body and what he appreciated her doing to him. Her hands brushed against his hips and then his thighs, making him move his hips slightly towards her. Daryl watched Beth with adoring eyes as she bent forward again and took his dick into her mouth. A short, sharp exhale of breath came out of his mouth, followed by a moan, from the contact that gave him a wave a pleasure.

"Beth," he gasped, grabbing a handful of her hair as she bobbed her head.

After a few blissful filled moments of that, Daryl somehow found the strength to tug her away and pin her on the ground again, hand running up her outer thigh. He yanked the cotton underwear from her so that they were flesh on flesh.

One of Daryl's large hands went to her thigh, wrapping around it as he brought it up onto his hip so he could more easily slip between her and line up at her soaked entrance. He saw that it caused goosebumps to run up Beth's arms as he placed himself to hover right above her, kissing her softly on the lips.

His hand snaked down onto her chest and he felt her heart racing, pounding against his calloused hand that laid between her breasts so that way he felt the beats. He felt the cool metal of the heart necklace that he had given her, the one she never took off. His hand then felt its way back down so he could grip onto her hip as he pushed inside of her, sliding in with ease.

He went nice and slow at first, sliding in and out of Beth's tightness. She met his thrusts as his movements got faster and he gripped onto her, needing some form of support.

And then his movements fell out of the rhythm that he had earlier established, the movements becoming more jerky and erratic as he felt the need to thrust harder and deeper. He reached his hand down between them and caressed the sensitive area that made Beth whimper and sigh and claw at his back with her fingernails. She responded by arching up her back and kissing his shoulder multiple times.

He kept at it, stroking her with his thumb until her legs quivered and he was assured that his job was done, that he had succeeded in giving her a pleasuring sensation through her whole body. Beth's leg muscles gave out for a second for before she clenched them back around his hips again, knowing that he liked it. She was too good in that way, always helped finish him off. His hand placed itself back onto her hip, and he gave it a few more good thrusts until he fell apart inside of her with a groan he let out.

Daryl's open mouth landed on her shoulder as he collapsed on top of her after he pulled out. He put a couple gentle kisses on her shoulder and neck as she stroked his hair, the other hand staying firmly against his back, overtop of one of the scars.

He rolled off of her so that they laid side by side, both naked. Daryl stared up at the cover of the trees as he drifted back to reality. He let his head drop to the side to look over at Beth. His eyes roamed over her perfect body until they connected with her own blue, sparkling orbs.

"We should get back," he said between short breaths.

"We should go _home,_" she corrected him.

"Yeah," he decided. "Let's go home."

But, in all seriousness, his home was wherever Beth was.

—

It was weeks later when Daryl and Beth came back from another hunt that he took her on when Glenn came outside to greet them, and instead told Beth, "Maggie is in labor!"

Beth and Daryl rushed back inside as they followed Glenn through the many hallways, their boots clanking against the floors as they ran, until they were brought into the room where Maggie was. "Beth! You're here."

Beth grabbed her sister's hand, holding tight as she tried to match her sister's firm grip. "I'm here."

Hershel was in the room to assist if needed. But apparently, Bob was also trained in childbirth since he had been an army medic before the turn and during deployments they sometimes had to assist with births in foreign countries when women had no way of getting to a hospital. Daryl was grateful that there was someone who knew what they were doing when it came to childbirth at the prison.

Daryl felt like he needed to give them some privacy as Maggie's contractions got closer together and Bob started to set up for the arrival of the baby. Daryl brushed his hand against Beth's lower back to let her know that he didn't feel right being in there and he would be out in the hall. She understood and nodded to him, letting him join the others who were anxiously awaiting the arrival of Maggie and Glenn's baby.

In the hall, right outside the door, Carol, Carl, and Rick waited with him. There were no words spoken between them, but there was a certain unrest in the air. Giving birth in this world was hard enough, and had a lot of risks. They all knew that, and they all were hoping for a safe delivery for both the baby and for Maggie.

Rick kept his eyes glued to the door, and Daryl could only imagine what he was going through, the concern that must be overtaking him knowing that Maggie had to cut Lori open to save the baby when it was clear that the both of them would not survive when the walkers had somehow found a way through the cell block and invaded their own. Rick needed this, needed Maggie and her baby to make it through without any problems, no medical complications. Carol and Daryl briefly exchanged a look, and that caused Carol to grab Rick's hand and enclose it into hers to let him know that what happened to Lori would not repeat itself with Maggie, and that they were all there for him.

Daryl heard the screams of Maggie and he flinched, not liking how it sounded. But he reminded himself that Beth's sister was, after all, pushing out a human being. She would be fine. Bob knew what he was doing in there and everything would turn out to be okay.

Soon the sounds of a baby crying filled the hall, and Maggie's own crying and joyful laughter as well, relief washing over everyone. Glenn poked his head out the door, pure happiness displayed on his face, and told them, "It's a girl."

They all ducked into the room to see Maggie holding a small infant in her arms that was wrapped up in a blanket, looking down lovingly at her daughter.

"Oh, she's beautiful," Carol complimented, her hands clasping together before one fell over her heart. "You both are."

Maggie flashed an exhausted smile over to Carol. "Thank you." She brushed her hand over her daughter's cheek before she leaned in to kiss her on the forehead. "She's perfect."

"And as far as I can tell, she is completely healthy," Bob added.

Beth grinned as she walked over to Daryl, holding onto his hand once she got to his side. "Maggie did great."

Michonne walked into the room next, congratulating Maggie. And after a few beats passed of everyone watching the newborn and relishing in the enjoyment and the happiness of the day, Maggie glanced up with a smile. "Anyone want to hold her?" she offered, looking over in Rick's direction.

He nodded and took a few steps forwards so that he could bend over and Maggie could gently place the little girl into his arms. Carl was by his side in a minute to get a better look at the new addition to the prison.

"Hey, Rick?"

He glanced up from holding Glenn's daughter. "Yeah?"

Glenn looked back to Maggie, and squeezed her hand. "We were thinking about baby names whether it was a girl or a boy. And we thought that if it was okay with you, then we would like to name her Lorraine. Call her Lori for short, maybe. Sort of as a remembrance. We wanted to ask you first, though. Make sure you didn't have a problem with it."

Carl smiled and looked up at his dad, waiting for approval. "Yeah, I think that would be just fine," he agreed.

"Then it's decided. Lorraine it is," Maggie said proudly as she watched from the bed she was propped up in, Glenn sitting down by her side.

Rick then passed Beth the newly named little girl. Daryl saw Beth hold her niece in her arms and cradle her with such warmth and love, with adoring eyes, and a smile on her face as she said hello and welcome to the family. And for the first time, he thought about what it would be like to see her hold one of their own.

It came out of nowhere, really.

Suddenly, this image of the future and what it could have in store for him was there. His brought his hand up to rub the scruff on his chin, mulling over the idea that popped into his head, and one that was determined to not leave as along as she watched Beth with the baby.

He was unfamiliar with the thoughts. Because he never believed he would ever have the opportunity to have a kid. He never imagined that, first of all, anyone would want to have a child with him, and second of all, he never imagined that he would want one. He believed that he was not fit for taking care of another human being in that way. Daryl Dixon and parenthood? Even a year ago he would have thought that was the craziest idea that existed on the planet.

But, now?

A baby that would be his and Beth's? Exclusively theirs and only theirs. Half of the each of them.

He liked that thought.

When Beth looked over at him with those big sparkling eyes of hers, he got the feeling like maybe, just maybe, she was thinking the same thing.

"You wanna hold her?" she asked, coming closer.

Daryl nodded his head, nervous. He remembered the first time he held Judith and she had been so small, so fragile in his arms that he had been a bit afraid at first. Beth handed over the little girl into his arms and he held her securely.

"Hey, there," Beth told the little one.

"Uncle Daryl," Glenn announced, laughing at how strange it sounded.

He rolled his eyes and huffed, though he was not opposed to the name. Beth stepped over and rested her head on Daryl's arm to admire her new niece. He didn't even think of the image that it displayed to the others, the two of them together as he held Maggie and Glenn's baby in his arms with Beth talking to her.

_**A/N: One more chapter to go until the story is complete! I hope you all really liked this chapter and the last one that will be coming soon! I'm excited to post it :)**_


	25. Chapter 25

**7 YEARS LATER**

"Daddy!"

The little four year old girl with long dark brown hair and blue eyes came flying at him, hugging onto Daryl's leg as he swung his crossbow over his shoulder. Beth held their dark-haired two year old boy in her arms as she strode down the pathway to the courtyard as the summertime sun set on the horizon, lighting up the sky with colors of orange. Beth looked as beautiful as ever, long blonde hair catching in the winds, the light of the sunset bouncing onto her flawless pale skin and brightening up her light blue orbs, the same color that their two children shared.

She looked at him with love and affection in those eyes, always had. That combined with the very sight of her still made Daryl lose track of his thoughts and stop him in his place.

He had a life now that he never imagined that he would. Strange that the apocalypse gave him that. Gave him a home. Gave him a family. Led him to Beth. And then gave him a small family of his own.

He remembered running his hands over Beth's swollen stomach, she seemingly glowed from the inside out through the months of pregnancy as their daughter grew inside of her. The one he put there after a kind of crazy and passionate and very much unplanned evening with Beth in the woods after hunting. Seemed fit, though. That their child would be conceived in the woods, a place where Daryl had spent so much time. The woods had always felt safe. It was a place that felt like a second home to him.

He had been so scared as Beth entered her third trimester. He didn't want to leave her side. It made him nervous and anxious whenever he was away, despite Beth assuring him that everything would be fine if he was gone for a few hours or so.

Now, Beth approached him once she made it all the way to the courtyard. "Hey, you," Beth greeted, kissing him on the lips.

Daryl then leaned in and kissed his son on the top of the head, ruffling up his hair, causing him to laugh and hide his face into his mother's shoulder.

Turns out, he actually was a good father, and Beth reminded him of that every once in a while when he might need a little reassurance. For some time there when Beth was pregnant with their first, he had flashbacks to his own childhood, to his father and how he was treated. He thought that maybe he would not be good enough once their baby came, that he would mess things up because Daryl had nothing to go on other than pain from this childhood. He had no good memories that could help him out. No way of knowing what the right thing to do was.

Luckily, that was were Rick came into the picture. He helped him out when he saw that Daryl was stressed about something concerning the baby that grew in Beth's belly. Rick noticed the signs of Daryl being scared and offered up some much needed advice. He remembered exactly what Rick told him one day, something that calmed his nerves as Beth's estimated due date nearer. Rick had said, "Don't worry. All you gotta do is what feels right. I had absolutely no clue what I was doin' when Carl was born. And Lori seemed like such a natural at it. She knew what to do. And I was so jealous of her. But all I had to do was look to her and she would direct me in the right direction, let me know what I needed to do. She let me know that I was doin' everythin' right with Carl. All you gotta do is look to Beth. She'll help you out."

And Beth did that for Daryl when he was in need to some guidance.

He remembered her squeezing his hand so tight that he thought his bones might break when she was delivering their girl. Hell, he would have let her break every bone in his body if that was what she needed to do to get through the birth. He stayed by her side the whole time, hand in pain, but definitely not as much as the pain Beth was in.

However, no bones broke, and all the pain was forgotten when Bob had announced that their baby had entered the world. Maggie even got to cut the umbilical cord, ecstatic to get to be one of the first people to lay eyes on her niece and hand her over to Beth.

And just like Maggie, Beth did great. She delivered a healthy baby girl who came out crying, all pink. Daryl thought he had been ready to faint at the sight of his child. She was beautiful, just like her mother.

Beth held their daughter in her arms and Daryl stared at the two most beautiful things in the world.

He remembered that he had been really afraid to hold her, but Beth encouraged him, so he sat down on the bed next to her and she handed the tiny little girl to him. It was one of the best moments of his life.

When the boy came, Beth had been past the point of being ready to get him out. She had actually laughed as she went into labor, said, "It's about damn time." Again, the birth had no complications, and Daryl got to hold his son, another best moment in his life.

Daryl kept them all safe. He was their protector.

And he loved Beth more and more every single day that he woke up, having her there right next to him. She was the first and only love of his life. That spot in his heart had been reserved and meant just for her.

Beth.

_His wife_.

Yeah, it was kind of strange to hand over a silver ring with a sapphire in the middle to her one night in bed, but she gratefully accepted it with a sweet smile, an understanding between them that it really was not that big of a deal. But he figured, hey, why not make it official.

And from there on out, they considered themselves to be married. And believe him, he remembered that smirk on Lizzie's face when she found out. Daryl wondered if maybe she knew all along what Daryl's life would turn out like, going all the way back to when she had asked him in the hallway if he and Beth would get married like Glenn and Maggie, and have a baby.

Daryl's mind traveled back to when Beth had told him years and years ago about how she believed that the two of them would have met no matter what had happened to the world, back when they were in the guard tower during the thunderstorm. He recalled the specific topic of fate being talked about. And now, he thought about it again.

Had fate brought him to Beth at the Greene farm in the first place?

Had he always been destined to meet Beth and have her teach him how to feel, and to love, and how to accept himself for who he was? He would not have been able to do it without her, he knew that for sure.

Maybe fate was a real thing after all, even in this kind of world, and Beth's and Daryl's fates had always been intertwined.

Because now he had pure, true happiness.

He had family of his own, along with a large tight-knit one with the people of the prison.

And he had love, Beth's love, and a love that he returned to her.

He never would have thought that something as bad and devastating as the apocalypse would grant him all of these wonderful things, the things he had never had before.

He threw a glance back over to Beth, his boy, and his little girl who were now all over with the people of the prison in the background to help hand out dinner for the nice summer evening meal, Beth motioning for him to join. He was captivated by it for a moment, a moment in time that stood still.

Daryl had everything that he needed and could ever ask for right there. Within the walls of the prison, and within the walls of his heart.

_**A/N: And there you have the last and final chapter. I'm kind of sad to be ending it but it is the right time to do so. The story I wanted to tell all came together and wrapped up in the way I wanted it to. I'm quite proud of how it turned out. And it has been a blast writing this and I am so grateful for all the lovely comments I have gotten over the course of me writing this story. So, one last time, I would like to say that I am so thankful for everyone who has followed, favorited, reviewed, and read my story. It means so much to me. Thank you so, so, so much for the support with the story. **_


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